M83 Unveiled: The Southern Pinwheel's Star-Forming Glow
APOD highlights M83, a 12-million-light-year-old spiral galaxy in Hydra nicknamed the Southern Pinwheel (also Thousand-Ruby Galaxy); its dusty spiral arms host blue star clusters and red star-forming regions, the galaxy spans about 40,000 light-years, and its core glows in X-rays from neutron stars and black holes formed in a past starburst.