M83 (APOD 27 Sep 2008)

[neufer]

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080927.html

[Rocky and Bullwinkle have brought an old model ship to an antique dealer]

Rocky: Bullwinkle, this ship is covered in rubies and look what's written on the side!
. O-Mar Khay-yam. Bullwinkle, do you know what this is?

Bullwinkle: Well, if you're waiting on me to say it, I won't.

Antique Dealer: Me neither.

Rocky: OK, then this must be......
...[pause] "The Ruby Yacht of Omar Khayyam".

Bullwinkle, Antique Dealer: OOOOH!

[neufer]

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http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap011106.html

Explanation: What's happening at the center of spiral galaxy M83? Just about everything, from the looks of it. M83, visible in the inset image on the upper left, is one of the closest spiral galaxies to our own Milky Way Galaxy and from a distance of 15 million light-years, appears to be relatively normal. Zooming in on M83's nucleus with the latest telescopes, however, shows the center to be an energetic and busy place. Visible in the above image from the Hubble Space Telescope are bright, newly formed stars and giant lanes of dark dust. An image with similar perspective from the Chandra X-ray Observatory shows the region is also rich in very hot gas and small bright sources.

Observations with the large ground-based VLT telescopes show the very center likely has two separate nuclei.

• There once were two cats of Kilkenny
  Each thought there was one cat too many
  So they fought and they hit
  And they scratched and they bit
  'Til (excepting their nails
  And the tips of their tails)
  Instead of two cats there weren't any!

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030206.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/blackhole/tiny.html