NGC 253, the Sculptor Galaxy (Charles Pevsner)

Celestial hemisphere: Southern · Constellation: Sculptor (Scl) · Contains: NGC 253 · Sculptor Filament · Sculptor galaxy · Silver Coin

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NGC 253, the Sculptor Galaxy

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NGC 253, the Sculptor Galaxy

NGC 253, the Sculptor Galaxy, at a distance of 11-12 million light years, is our nearest starburst galaxy. It is undergoing an exceptionally high rate of star formation; hence the bright eruptions of star clusters in the outer arms. It has a faint dwarf satellite galaxy, NGC 253-dw2 (not visible here), whose gravitational disturbance is thought to be responsible for the very evident disruption in the heavy interstellar dust, leading to the irregularities in its filament structure. The fiery nucleus of the galaxy is a very bright source of X-rays and gamma rays as well as being ablaze with visible light.

It is called the Sculptor Galaxy not because it looks especially sleekly sculptured – in fact in fine detail it is uneven and mottled – but because it is the most prominent member of the Sculptor group of galaxies in the Southern hemisphere constellation Sculptor. NGC 253 just barely squeaks into Sculptor, as it lies very near the border of the constellation Cetus.

Original
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Final
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F

Description: Improved star colors and restored missing foreground stars over galaxy

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G

Description: Removed color cast, and improved star colors

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Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

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Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
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Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	5178262
PixInsight job	YM1DNC2BRLQC8BT29LA63LHCZMU0SWWS
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	00h47m34s.312
RA (top/left)	00h48m57s.899
RA (top/right)	00h48m59s.330
RA (bottom/right)	00h46m11s.223
RA (bottom/left)	00h46m08s.794

Dec (center)	-25°18′01″.82
Dec (top/left)	-25°37′42″.68
Dec (top/right)	-24°58′43″.80
Dec (bottom/right)	-24°58′18″.19
Dec (bottom/left)	-25°37′17″.43

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NGC 253, the Sculptor Galaxy

NGC 253, the Sculptor Galaxy

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NGC 253, the Sculptor Galaxy

NGC 253, the Sculptor Galaxy

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