Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Sculptor (Scl)  ·  Contains:  NGC 253  ·  Sculptor Filament  ·  Silver Coin
NGC 253 - Sculptor Galaxy, Eyal
NGC 253 - Sculptor Galaxy
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NGC 253 - Sculptor Galaxy

NGC 253 - Sculptor Galaxy, Eyal
NGC 253 - Sculptor Galaxy
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NGC 253 - Sculptor Galaxy

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Description

The Sculptor Galaxy (also known as the Silver Coin, Silver Dollar Galaxy, NGC 253, or Caldwell 65) is an intermediate spiral galaxy in the constellation Sculptor. The Sculptor Galaxy is a starburst galaxy, which means that it is currently undergoing a period of intense star formation.

The Sculptor Galaxy is located at the center of the Sculptor Group, one of the nearest groups of galaxies to the Milky Way. The Sculptor Galaxy (the brightest galaxy in the group and one of the intrinsically brightest galaxies in the vicinity of ours, only surpassed by the Andromeda Galaxy and the Sombrero Galaxy) and the companion galaxies NGC 247, PGC 2881, PGC 2933, Sculptor-dE1, and UGCA 15 form a gravitationally-bound core near the center of the group. Most other galaxies associated with the Sculptor Group are only weakly gravitationally bound to this core.

Research suggests the presence of a supermassive black hole in the center of this galaxy with a mass estimated to be 5 million times that of our Sun, which is slightly heavier than Sagittarius A*.

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NGC 253 - Sculptor Galaxy, Eyal