The enormous energy output detected in many cores of galaxies is one of the key issues in the studies of galaxies and their evolution, notwithstanding several questions remain unsolved: Are accretion onto super-massive black holes and violent star formation just coevolving phenomena or necessary partners of the activity? How is the detailed physics of the mechanisms triggering the nuclear extended violent star formation? Which is the relationship of the triggering mechanisms with galaxy evolution? The main drawback to face these issues is that developed stages of large star formation events at galactic centres do not provide enough clues about their origin, since the morphological signatures of the triggering mechanism are smeared out in the time scale of a few orbital revolutions of the galaxy core. Here we present the onset of such an event undergone by M83, a galaxy nearby enough to allow detailed spatial cinematic and morphological studies. High resolution 3D near-IR spectroscopy sugests the capture of a satellite galaxy, whose spur left behind a giant nuclear arc of violent star formation. The age gradient within the arc supports that this structure traces the orbital path of the intruder. Our numerical modelling indicates that the two nuclei would coalesce in less than 50 Myr.