Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Sculptor (Scl)  ·  Contains:  NGC 253  ·  Sculptor Filament  ·  Silver Coin
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NGC 253: The Silver Coin Galaxy in wide field, Prabhakaran
NGC 253: The Silver Coin Galaxy in wide field
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NGC 253: The Silver Coin Galaxy in wide field

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
NGC 253: The Silver Coin Galaxy in wide field, Prabhakaran
NGC 253: The Silver Coin Galaxy in wide field
Powered byPixInsight

NGC 253: The Silver Coin Galaxy in wide field

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Description

NGC 253 is one of the brightest spiral galaxies visible, but also one of the dustiest. Dubbed the Silver Coin for its appearance in small telescopes, it is more formally known as the Sculptor Galaxy for its location within the boundaries of the southern constellation Sculptor. Discovered 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, pictured, 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 widefield image captured with a small 80mm Telescope. The high dust content accompanies frantic star formation, earning NGC 253 the designation of a starburst galaxy.

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NGC 253: The Silver Coin Galaxy in wide field, Prabhakaran

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Very Wide Field
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