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NGC253 on 2023-09-08_59 subs X 180 sec

The Sculptor Galaxy (also known as the Silver Coin, Silver Dollar Galaxy, NGC 253, or Caldwell 65) is an intermediate spiral galaxy in the constellation Sculptor. The Sculptor Galaxy is a starburst galaxy, which means that it is currently undergoing a period of intense star formation. NGC 253's starburst has created several super star clusters near NGC 253's center (discovered with the aid of the Hubble Space Telescope): One such star cluster has a mass of 1.5 million solar masses. An even more massive star cluster, heavily obscured by NGC 253's interstellar dust, has a mass of about 14 million solar masses. The super star clusters are arranged in an ellipse around the center of NGC 253, which from the Earth's perspective appears as a flat line. Star formation is also high in the northeast of NGC 253's disk, where many red supergiant stars can be found. Other peculiarities found in NGC 253 suggest that a gas-rich dwarf galaxy collided with it 200 million years ago, disturbing its disk and starting the present starburst. NGC 253 is located about 10.89 million light-years from our Earth. Research suggests the presence of a supermassive black hole in the center of the galaxy with a mass estimated to be about 5 million times that of our Sun.