Messier 83

Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille discovered M83 on 17 February 1752 at the Cape of Good Hope.

[8] It is one of the closest and brightest barred spiral galaxies in the sky, and is visible with binoculars.

[11] The peculiar dwarf galaxy NGC 5253 lies near M83,[12] and the two likely interacted within the last billion years resulting in starburst activity in their central regions.

[10] The star formation rate in M83 is higher along the leading edge of the spiral arms, as predicted by density wave theory.

[13] NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer project on 16 April 2008 reported finding large numbers of new stars in the outer reaches of the galaxy—20 kpc from the center.

Messier 83 captured by the Wide Field Imager at ESO's La Silla Observatory in September 2008