Description:
The Circinus Galaxy is one of the closest known active galaxies to Earth, located about 13 million light-years away in the constellation Circinus, just beyond the plane of the Milky Way. Despite its proximity, even though it is relatively bright and large, the Circinus Galaxy was only discovered in 1977 due to heavy obscuration by dust from our own galaxy.
Its center hosts a Seyfert II active galactic nucleus, powered by a supermassive black hole, and is surrounded by a ring of intense star formation. Roughly 50,000 light years across, it is about half the size of the Milky Way.