Cepheids have been observed in NGC 5236 ( M 83 ) using the ANTU ( UT1 ) 8.2 meter telescope of the ESO VLT with FORS1 .
Repeated imaging observations have been made between January 2000 and July 2001 .
Images were obtained on 34 epochs in the V band and on 6 epochs in the I band .
The photometry was made with the ROMAFOT reduction package and checked independently with DoPHOT and a modified version of HSTphot .
Twelve Cepheid candidates have periods ranging between 12 and 55 days .
The dereddened distance modulus is adopted to be ( m - M ) ^ { 0 } = 28.25 \pm 0.15 , which corresponds to a distance of 4.5 \pm 0.3 Mpc .
The Cepheid distance of NGC 5253 has been rediscussed and strengthened by its SN 1972E .
The mean distance of ( m - M ) ^ { 0 } = 28.01 \pm 0.15 
( based on SN 1972E ) shows the galaxy to be a close neighbor of M 83 , suggesting that the two galaxies may have interacted in the past and thus possibly explaining the amorphous morphology of NGC 5253 .
The distance difference between M 83 and NGC 5253 is only ( 0.5 \pm 0.4 ) Mpc .
The projected distance is only \sim 0.15 Mpc .

M 83 is the principal member of the nearby M 83 group containing also , besides NGC 5253 , several dwarf members , for five of which TRGB distances are available ( , A & A , 385 , 21 ) .
The adopted group distance of ( m - M ) ^ { 0 } = 28.28 \pm 0.10 
( 4.5 \pm 0.2 Mpc ) together with its mean recession velocity of v _ { LG } = 249 \pm 42 km s ^ { -1 } shows again the extreme quietness of the local ( 1 Mpc to 10 Mpc ) expansion field .
M 83 fits onto the local mean Hubble flow line of the velocity-distance relation ( with H _ { 0 } \sim 60 ) with no significant deviation , supporting the earlier conclusion that the local velocity expansion field is remarkably cold on a scale of 10 Mpc , contrary to the predictions of the simplest cold dark matter model for large scale structure .
The role of a cosmological constant has been invoked as a possible solution in providing a nearly uniform force field everywhere in the presence of a lumpy galaxy distribution .