NGC253 GALAXY on 2023-09-08
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. NGC 253's starburst has created several super star clusters near NGC 253's center (discovered with the aid of the Hubble Space Telescope): One such star cluster has a mass of 1.5 million solar masses. An even more massive star cluster, heavily obscured by NGC 253's interstellar dust, has a mass of about 14 million solar masses. The super star clusters are arranged in an ellipse around the center of NGC 253, which from the Earth's perspective appears as a flat line. Star formation is also high in the northeast of NGC 253's disk, where many red supergiant stars can be found. Other peculiarities found in NGC 253 suggest that a gas-rich dwarf galaxy collided with it 200 million years ago, disturbing its disk and starting the present starburst. NGC 253 is located about 10.89 million light-years from our Earth. Research suggests the presence of a supermassive black hole in the center of the galaxy with a mass estimated to be about 5 million times that of our Sun.
This photo was taken in Kyle, Texas through a 6-inch f/4 Telescope, on a Sky-Watcher EQ6-R mount, with a ZWO ASI533MC PRO color camera plus an Optolong L Pro Light Pollution Filter. The processing was done in PixInsight. The total image acquisition time is: 04 hrs 03 min 00 sec.
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