Messier 83
Messier 83 or M83, also known as the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy and NGC 5236, is a barred spiral galaxy approximately 15 million light-years away in the constellation borders of Hydra and Centaurus. Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille discovered M83 on 23 February 1752 at the Cape of Good Hope. Charles Messier added it to his catalogue of nebulous objects (now known as the Messier Catalogue) in March 1781.
| Messier 83 | |
|---|---|
Messier 83 captured by the Wide Field Imager at ESO's La Silla Observatory in September 2008 | |
| Observation data (J2000 epoch) | |
| Constellation | Hydra |
| Right ascension | 13h 37m 00.919s |
| Declination | −29° 51′ 56.74″ |
| Redshift | 0.001721±0.000013 |
| Heliocentric radial velocity | 508 km/s |
| Distance | 14.7 Mly (4.50 Mpc) |
| Apparent magnitude (V) | 7.6 |
| Characteristics | |
| Type | SAB(s)c |
| Size | 36.24 kiloparsecs (118,000 light-years) (diameter; 26.0 mag/arcsec2 B-band isophote) |
| Apparent size (V) | 12′.9 × 11′.5 |
| Other designations | |
| Southern Pinwheel Galaxy, NGC 5236, PGC 48082, UGCA 366 | |
It is one of the closest and brightest barred spiral galaxies in the sky, and is visible with binoculars. It has an isophotal diameter at about 36.24 kiloparsecs (118,000 light-years). Its nickname of the Southern Pinwheel derives from its resemblance to the Pinwheel Galaxy (M101).
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