Southern Pinwheel Galaxy (M83 · NGC 5236) — Sc in Hydra
The Southern Pinwheel Galaxy (M83, NGC 5236) as a framed fine art print. Sc in Hydra, 13.6 arcminutes across, its light 24 million years old. Measured by…
About Southern Pinwheel Galaxy (M83 · NGC 5236)
Messier 83, the Southern Pinwheel, is one of the closest and brightest barred spirals in the sky, and one of the most active. Six supernovae have been seen in it during the last century, more than in almost any other galaxy, a sign of how quickly it is making and losing massive stars. Its arms are lined with pink star-forming regions, which is why it photographs as one of the most richly coloured galaxies in the southern sky.
What you are looking at
The Southern Pinwheel Galaxy is a late-type spiral: a small central bulge and open, loosely wound arms full of young stars and star-forming gas. We look down on it almost face-on, so its structure is laid out as if on a map. From edge to edge its visible disc spans about 97,000 light-years (taking its redshift distance, which for a galaxy this near is approximate), close to the width of the Milky Way.
What astronomers have recorded
SIMBAD, the reference database astronomers use, classes it as a starburst galaxy, forming new stars far faster than the Milky Way does. Five supernovae have been recorded in it, the first in 1923; the most recent include SN 1957D, SN 1968L, SN 1983N. It is cited in 2,818 scientific papers indexed by SIMBAD, and recorded there under 55 different catalogue designations.
When this light set out
Its light has been travelling for about 24 million years. When it left, Antarctica had begun to freeze. The galaxy is moving away from us at about 508 km/s (1.1 million mph), carried by the expansion of the universe. For a galaxy this close, its own motion through space is a large share of that speed, so the distance worked out from it is approximate; distances measured from individual stars in it can differ.
Finding it in the sky
The Southern Pinwheel Galaxy lies in Hydra. It is best placed on spring evenings: around 9:30 pm in May it stands about 20° high in the south, seen from the middle of the United States.
Its neighbours
At almost the same distance from us, and so its neighbours in space as well as on the sky: NGC 5264 (1.0° away on the sky, at least 430,000 light-years from it); IC 4316 (1.2° away on the sky, at least 520,000 light-years from it).
By apparent size it is number 6 of the 12,657 galaxies on the Galaxy Origins register.
Measurements
| Catalogue | PGC 48082 |
|---|---|
| Morphological type | Sc |
| Angular diameter | 13.61′ |
| Right ascension | 13h37m00.9s |
| Declination | -29°51′56.3″ |
| Constellation | Hydra |
| Inclination | 15.3° |
| Light travel time | 24 million years |
| Bar | yes, from the catalogue |
Check every figure above in the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database
What is sold
A print of this galaxy and the record of the calculation, once. When it sells it leaves the register and is not offered again. We assign no names and no ownership — nobody can sell you those.
At 13.6 arcminutes this is a Exceptional galaxy, which is the tier where a real photograph shows clear structure and dust lanes. The tier comes from the measured diameter, not from a price list.
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