Shining spiral galaxies in the universe

ESO's Wide Field Imager has just captured a confusing picture of spiral galaxy Messier 83 - the galaxy looks a lot like our Milky Way but smaller. Shining with billions of stars and red-colored light of the hydrogen gas layer, it is a charming example of a spiral galaxy. The shape of Messier 83 gave it the name Southern Pinwheel (meaning 'Southern Firework Ring').

The impressive image of the galaxy Messier 83 is captured by the Wide Field Imager at the La Silla Observatory (ESO). The observatory is located on a hot, dry desert mountain within the Atacama Desert (Chile). Messier 83 is located 15 million light-years away towards the giant constellation south of Hydra (' Sea Snake' ). It spans 40,000 light years, 2.5 times smaller than the Milky Way galaxy.

However, in some respects, Messier 83 is quite similar to the Milky Way. Both the Milky Way and Messier 83 have barriers across the nucleus of the galaxy - the dense sphere of stars carrying the stars at the center of the galaxy.

Detailed images depicting Messier 83's spiral arm decorated by countless brilliant emerald red light lines. They are actually giant clouds of glowing hydrogen gas. Ultraviolet radiation from newly formed large stars ionizes gas in clouds, causing a huge area of ​​hydrogen to glow red. These star-forming regions contrast abruptly in the image of the light of older golden stars near the galaxy center. The picture also shows subtle motifs that show darkness and dust lines surrounding the arms of the galaxy.

The image looks like the flower of the spiral galaxy Messier 83, thanks to data from the Wide Field Imager of the 2.2-meter ESO / MPG telescope located in La Silla. (Photo: Image courtesy of ESO)

Messier 83 was discovered by French astronaut Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in the mid-18th century. It was later listed in the famous list of objects in the sky by a different astronaut. French with the famous comet hunter Charles Messier drafted. Recent observations of mysterious galaxies through ultraviolet rays and radio waves have shown that even desolate areas outside the galaxy (located very far from the areas in the image) also have new stars.

X-ray illumination into the galactic center Messier 83 shows that its center is a powerful star-forming cradle, located deep within the cloud of extremely hot gas with a temperature of about 7 million degrees Celsius . Messier 83 is also one of the most supernova-producing galaxies, also known as exploding stars. It is one of two galaxies that produce six supernovae in the last 100 years. One of the supernovae named SN 1957D has been discovered for 30 years.

Wide Field Imager (WFI) is a special astronomical camera mounted in the Max-Planck Society / ESO telescope with a diameter of 2.2 m located at La Silla Observatory in Chile. Located 2400 m above sea level in the mountains of the Atacama Desert, the La Silla Observatory (ESO) possesses the darkest and clearest part of the planet, making it an ideal place to study. The most remote areas of the universe.

To get the picture, the WFI observed the galaxy Messier 83 for about 100 minutes through a series of specialized filters, making the faint features of the galaxy also exposed. The brighter stars near are our galaxy stars, and behind Messier 83 are the figures of distant galaxies on a dark background.