¿ Astronomy Picture of the Day [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2020 April 14 [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available. NGC 253: The Silver Coin Galaxy Image Credit: [3]NOAJ: Subaru, [4]NASA & [5]ESA: [6]Hubble, [7]ESO: [8]VLT & [9]Danish 1.5-m; Processing & Copyright: [10]Robert Gendler & [11]Roberto Colombari Explanation: NGC 253 is one of the brightest spiral galaxies visible, but also one of the dustiest. Dubbed the [12]Silver Coin for its appearance in smalltelescopes, it is more formally known as [13]the Sculptor Galaxy for its location within the boundaries of the southern [14]constellation Sculptor. Discovered in 1783 by mathematician and astronomer [15]Caroline Herschel, the dusty island universe lies a mere 10 million light-years away. About 70 thousand [16]light-years across, NGC 253, [17]pictured, is the largest member of the [18]Sculptor Group of Galaxies, the nearest to our own [19]Local Group of galaxies. In addition to its spiral dust lanes, tendrils of dust seem to be [20]rising from a galactic disk laced with young star clusters and star forming regions in this sharp color image. The high [21]dust content accompanies frantic star formation, [22]earning NGC 253 the designation of a [23]starburst galaxy. [24]NGC 253 is also known to be a [25]strong source of high-energy [26]x-rays and [27]gamma rays, likely due to massive [28]black holes near the galaxy's center. Take a trip through extragalactic space in [29]this short video flyby of NGC 253. Astrophysicists: [30]Browse 2,100+ codes in the Astrophysics Source Code Library Tomorrow's picture: triple play MVP __________________________________________________________________ [31]< | [32]Archive | [33]Submissions | [34]Index | [35]Search | [36]Calendar | [37]RSS | [38]Education | [39]About APOD | [40]Discuss | [41]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [42]Robert Nemiroff ([43]MTU) & [44]Jerry Bonnell ([45]UMCP) NASA Official: Phillip Newman [46]Specific rights apply. [47]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: [48]ASD at [49]NASA / [50]GSFC & [51]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2004/NGC253_HstSubaruEsoNew_3500.jpg 3. https://subarutelescope.org/en/ 4. https://www.nasa.gov/ 5. https://www.esa.int/ 6. https://hubblesite.org/ 7. https://www.eso.org/ 8. https://www.eso.org/public/usa/teles-instr/paranal-observatory/vlt/ 9. https://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/lasilla/danish154/ 10. http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/ 11. https://www.facebook.com/roberto.colombari 12. https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/coin-flip-23642565.jpg 13. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sculptor_Galaxy 14. http://www.hawastsoc.org/deepsky/scl/index.html 15. http://amazing-space.stsci.edu/resources/explorations/groundup/lesson/bios/herschel/ 16. https://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/cosmic_distance.html 17. http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/NGC253-HST-Subaru-ESO-New.html 18. http://messier.seds.org/xtra/ngc/sclgr.html 19. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_Group 20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110519.html 21. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_dust 22. http://www.arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0509430 23. http://www.nrao.edu/pr/2013/starburst-bust/ 24. http://messier.seds.org/xtra/ngc/n0253.html 25. http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2001/0012/index.html 26. https://science.nasa.gov/ems/11_xrays 27. https://science.nasa.gov/ems/12_gammarays 28. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap190411.html 29. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nN3bJZUKrJU 30. http://ascl.net/ 31. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200413.html 32. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 33. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 34. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 35. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 36. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 37. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss 38. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 39. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 40. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=200414 41. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200415.html 42. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 43. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 44. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 45. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 46. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 47. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 48. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 49. https://www.nasa.gov/ 50. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 51. http://www.mtu.edu/