Southern Pinwheel Galaxy

The human mind loves to see familiar things in shapes and patterns. That is how many deep-space objects are named.

Messier 83 Galaxy has been named the "Southern Pinwheel Galaxy" due to its shape and resemblance to the Northern Pinwheel Galaxy, Messier 101.

Southern Pinwheel is a barred spiral galaxy approximately 15 million light-years away. It is in the direction border of the Hydra and Centaurus constellations. As one of the closest and brightest barred spiral galaxies it is sometimes visible with a pair of binoculars.