SPACEPHOTOS

Central region of spiral galaxy ESO 269-57, located in the southern constellation Centaurus at a distance of about 150 million light-years. Many galaxies are seen in this direction at about the same distance, forming a loose cluster; there are also some fainter, more distant ones in the background. The designation refers to the ESO/Uppsala Survey of the Southern Sky in the 1970's during which over 15,000 southern galaxies were catalogued. ESO 269-57 is a tightly bound object of type Sar, the 'r' referring to the 'ring' that surrounds the bright centre, that is overexposed here.