NGC 253 Sculptor Galaxy

NGC 253 is also known as the Sculptor Galaxy or the Silver Dollar Galaxy. It is one of the largest and most impressive galaxies observable and photographable in the southern sky. My goal was to capture it with particularly deep exposures to reveal the faintest structures. It is well known that this galaxy exhibits an interesting halo and distinct deformations at its edges. These could be indications of past collisions with dwarf galaxies or other gravitational interactions.

In the inverted version of the image, what I mean becomes particularly clear. The faint structures surrounding the galaxy stand out more distinctly, especially the extended halo and the deformations at the edges. Unfortunately, I was unable to detect any additional, previously unknown structures—only those already well-documented in scientific studies, such as the southern „shelf“ and the slight northwestern overdensity.

I have previously discussed galactic winds in the context of NGC 4945. Similar winds have also been observed in NGC 253, although they are likely the result of an extremely high rate of star formation. For this reason, the Silver Dollar Galaxy is classified as a starburst galaxy, similar to M82.