In the Center of Spiral Galaxy M83
Explanation:
What's happening at the center of spiral galaxy M83?
Just about everything, from the looks of it.
M83, visible in the inset image on the upper left,
is one of the closest
spiral galaxies to our own
Milky Way Galaxy and from a distance of 15 million
light-years, appears to be relatively normal.
Zooming in on
M83's nucleus with the
latest telescopes, however, shows the center
to be an energetic and busy place.
Visible in the
above image from the
Hubble Space Telescope
are bright,
newly formed stars and giant
lanes of dark
dust.
An
image with similar perspective from the
Chandra X-ray Observatory
shows the region is also rich in very hot gas and
small bright sources.
Observations with large the ground-based
VLT telescopes show the very
center likely has two separate nuclei.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
