From CFHT's Astronomy Picture of the Week
NGC 253 is one of the brightest and nearest galaxies located outside the Local Group of Galaxies, the group our Milky Way is part of, together with M31, the Andromeda galaxy. It is the brightest member of the so-called Sculptor group. This excellent image shows elements that are typical of spiral galaxies: it has a complex structure of clumpy gas, dark dust lanes, and spiral arms. The central star clusters also appear very luminous at the center of this near-infrared view of the galaxy.
On this color-composite image, the true orientation of the object is conserved, with North up and East to the left. The final image was obtained by combining three images taken in the I-, H- and K-bands, at 800nm, 1600nm and 2200nm respectively. Total exposure time was about 10 minute on-source in each filter.
Image Title: NGC 253, a Bright Spiral Galaxy
Image courtesy of J. L. Beuzit, R. Doyon, B. Calder, & M. Riope
Text based on accompanying on-line materials.
Back to galaxies photographs index.
Last Modified On: Sunday, February 25, 2001