Image of the Month

This colour image of the nearby spiral galaxy M83 was made from observations obtained with the FORS1 and FORS2 instruments at the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT). Images in the B (blue), V ("visible"), R (red) and Halpha filters were combined to produce an image in roughly "true" colours, showing the galaxy as it would appear to our eyes - if they were sensitive enough! Along the spiral arms, many young blue stars and star clusters can be seen, and regions of ionized gas ("H II regions") are visible as bright red patches. Closer to the centre of the galaxy, the yellow-orange colours indicate the presence of older stars. M83 has one of the highest star formation rates of any nearby galaxy and hosts a large number of young star clusters. In the past century, six supernovae have been recorded in M83, surpassed only by NGC 6946 (another spiral galaxy). M83 has recently been studied in detail by E. Silva Villa and S. Larsen at the Astronomical Institute, using images from the Hubble Space Telescope. They showed that not only is M83 forming stars and clusters very vigorously; the fraction of new-born stars found in star clusters is also higher than in most other galaxies.