NGC 1079 — SABa in Fornax
SABa in Fornax, 3.3 arcminutes across, its light 70 million years old. Measured by HyperLEDA, photographed by Pan-STARRS1. Recorded once.
About NGC 1079
What you are looking at
NGC 1079 is an early-type spiral: a large, bright central bulge wrapped in smooth, tightly wound arms. A weak bar of stars crosses its centre. Its disc is steeply tilted, about 61° from face-on, so it appears as a long oval. From edge to edge its visible disc spans about 66,000 light-years (taking its redshift distance, which for a galaxy this near is approximate), about 67% of the Milky Way’s width.
What astronomers have recorded
SIMBAD, the reference database astronomers use, classes it as a Seyfert galaxy: its nucleus is lit by gas falling into its central black hole, though dust hides part of that glow from us. It is cited in 148 scientific papers indexed by SIMBAD, and recorded there under 19 different catalogue designations.
When this light set out
Its light has been travelling for about 70 million years. When it left, dinosaurs were at their peak. The galaxy is moving away from us at about 1,453 km/s (3.3 million mph), carried by the expansion of the universe. For a galaxy this close, its own motion through space is a large share of that speed, so the distance worked out from it is approximate; distances measured from individual stars in it can differ.
Finding it in the sky
NGC 1079 lies in Fornax. It is best placed on winter evenings: around 9:30 pm in December it stands about 21° high in the south, seen from the middle of the United States.
Its neighbours
At almost the same distance from us, and so its neighbours in space as well as on the sky: IC 1826 (1.9° away on the sky, at least 2,270,000 light-years from it).
By apparent size it is number 429 of the 12,657 galaxies on the Galaxy Origins register.
Measurements
| Catalogue | PGC 10330 |
|---|---|
| Morphological type | SABa |
| Angular diameter | 3.25′ |
| Right ascension | 02h43m44.3s |
| Declination | -29°00′12.0″ |
| Constellation | Fornax |
| Inclination | 61.2° |
| Light travel time | 70 million years |
| Bar | yes, from the catalogue |
Check every figure above in the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database
What is sold
A print of this galaxy and the record of the calculation, once. When it sells it leaves the register and is not offered again. We assign no names and no ownership — nobody can sell you those.
At 3.3 arcminutes this is a Exceptional galaxy, which is the tier where a real photograph shows clear structure and dust lanes. The tier comes from the measured diameter, not from a price list.
Take this galaxy — $1,290 Browse the Collection