The Southern Pinwheel Galaxy: Messier 83 in Hydra | Europa Telescope

The Southern Pinwheel Galaxy: Messier 83 in Hydra | Europa Telescope

This first light image from the Europa Telescope at the SPECULOOS Southern Observatory (SSO) shows Messier 83 (M83), the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy. M83 is a picturesque and often-imaged galaxy. It is a barred spiral galaxy approximately 15 million light-years away from Earth. M83 is one of the closest and brightest barred spiral galaxies in the sky and is visible with binoculars. Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille discovered M83 on February 17, 1752, at the Cape of Good Hope.

The SSO is installed at the European Southern Observatory’s Paranal Observatory in the vast Atacama Desert, Chile, and consists of four 1-meter planet-hunting telescopes. The project’s telescopes are named after Jupiter’s Galilean moons, and are neighbors of the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope and VISTA. SPECULOOS will focus on detecting Earth-sized planets orbiting nearby ultra-cool stars and brown dwarfs.

Image Credit: SPECULOOS Team/E. Jehin/ESO
Release Date: Dec. 5, 2018

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