NGC 4945

Following the recent public announcement of the winners and all shortlisted images I can now reveal my 2nd image that was shortlisted in this year's Astronomy Photographer of the Year Award.

NGC 4945 is a spiral galaxy viewed edge-on from Earth that is thought to closely resemble our own Milky Way. Although obscured by dust, it is thought to have a bar shaped central region, with a core brighter than the Milky Way’s, likely containing a supermassive black hole.

It is around 80,000 light years in diameter and is around 13 million light years away from Earth, receding at around 563 kilometres per second. It is one of the brightest galaxies in the nearby Centaurus A/M83 Group.

Classified as both a Seyfert II and a starburst galaxy due to it’s extremely bright nucleus and high rates of star formation respectively when compared to normal galaxies.