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"Zoom into the centre of the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy, M83. This is a face-on barred spiral with a classic grand design form. It is the main member of a small galactic group including NGC 5253 and about 9 dwarf galaxies. M83 is some 40, 000 light years wide, making it less than half the size of our own Milky Way galaxy. It is otherwise quite similar though: both the Milky Way and M83 possess a bar across their galactic nucleus, the dense conglomeration of older, redder stars seen at the galaxy's centre. Several supernovae have been observed in M83 in the past century, which is indicative of an exceptionally high rate of star formation, leading to its classification as a starburst galaxy. The arms contain a ring of bright star clusters, containing mostly young stars between 5 and 10 million years old. M83 is one of the closest large spiral galaxies to Earth, lying around 15 million light years away in the constellation Hydra.<br>Restrictions:"