M83 (NGC 5236) is a large, bright spiral galaxy in the southern constellation of Hydra about 15 million light years distant. It is known as the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy due to its resemblance to the Pinwheel Galaxy (M101) in Ursa Major. It is a large, grand design spiral galaxy with a weak central bar and loosely wound spiral arms. The edges of the spiral arms contain many new stars in the pinkish regions thought to result from an encounter with dwarf galaxy NGC 5252 about 2 degrees to the south (below the bottom of the image). North is up, East is to the left, and the field of view is 30′ x 30′. The galaxy is approximately 10′ x 10′. There is a very faint star stream just off the top (north) edge of the frame. There are many distant galaxies throughout the image that appear tiny in comparison to M83. M83 is one of the closest barred spiral galaxies to our Milky Way Galaxy, and with 40 billion stars, it can be considered as our smaller cousin.