April 19, 1997
The same forces that sculpt nebulae and spin galaxies into existence were at work the day you were born.
Spiral Galaxy M83 Credit and Copyright:
Birthday · April 19, 1997
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APOD published April 19, 1997. Full image credits are on the original APOD entry below. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
The long winding arms of this nearby spiral galaxy define it as the "Southern Pinwheel." But M83 is quite a typical spiral - much like our own Milky Way Galaxy. Spiral galaxies contains many billions of stars, the youngest of which inhabit the spiral arms and glow strongly in blue light. Dark dust lanes are mixed in with the stars and help define M83's marked spiral structure. The space between the spiral arms is also filled with stars - but stars that are typically more dim and red. M83 has shown an unusual amount of stellar supernovae explosions - six since the turn of the century - more than any other Messier galaxy.