Messier 83 (M83), also known as the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy, is a barred spiral galaxy located in the southern constellation Hydra.
M83 lies at a distance of 15.21 million light years from Earth and has an apparent magnitude of 7.54. It has the designation NGC 5236 in the New General Catalogue.
The Southern Pinwheel Galaxy occupies an area of 12.9 by 11.5 arc minutes of apparent sky, which corresponds to a spatial diameter of about 55,000 light years, or roughly half the size of the Milky Way.
M83 is one of the nearest and brightest barred spirals in the sky and can be seen in 10×50 binoculars, which only reveal a patch of light with a brighter core.