A brilliant swirl of starfire spinning in the southern sky. Located 15 million light-years away on the border of Hydra and Centaurus, Messier 83—the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy—spans a majestic 50,000 light-years across. Captured beautifully by astrophotographer Rodney Watters from the Glanmire Observatory in Australia, this deep, 24-hour exposure sequence reveals the barred spiral's vibrant lanes of cosmic dust, ruby-red hydrogen star-forming regions, and thousands of young, blue star clusters sprawling across its winding arms.
A brilliant swirl of starfire spinning in the southern sky. Located 15 million light-years away on the border of Hydra and Centaurus, Messier 83—the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy—spans a majestic 50,000 light-years across. Captured beautifully by astrophotographer Rodney Watters from the Glanmire Observatory in Australia, this deep, 24-hour exposure sequence reveals the barred spiral's vibrant lanes of cosmic dust, ruby-red hydrogen star-forming regions, and thousands of young, blue star clusters sprawling across its winding arms.