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Credit & Copyright: László Francsics
Explanation:
Shiny NGC 253
is one of the brightest spiral galaxies visible,
and also one of the dustiest.
Some call it the Silver Dollar Galaxy for its appearance in small
telescopes, or just the Sculptor Galaxy for its location within
the boundaries of the southern constellation Sculptor.
First swept up in 1783 by mathematician
and astronomer
Caroline Herschel,
the dusty island universe lies a mere 10 million light-years away.
About 70 thousand light-years across, NGC 253 is the largest member of
the Sculptor
Group of Galaxies, the nearest to our own
Local Group of Galaxies.
In addition to its spiral dust lanes, tendrils of dust seem to be
rising from a galactic disk
laced with young star clusters and star forming regions in
this
sharp color image.
The high dust content accompanies frantic star formation,
earning
NGC 253 the designation of a
starburst galaxy.
NGC 253 is also known
to be a strong source of high-energy
x-rays and gamma rays, likely due to massives black hole near
the galaxy's center.
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A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: NGC 253 - spiral galaxy
Publications with words: NGC 253 - spiral galaxy
See also: