NGC 1357 — Sab in Eridanus
Sab in Eridanus, 3.4 arcminutes across, its light 96 million years old. Measured by HyperLEDA, photographed by Pan-STARRS1. Recorded once.
About NGC 1357
What you are looking at
NGC 1357 is an early-type spiral: a large, bright central bulge wrapped in smooth, tightly wound arms. It is tilted about 43° to our line of sight, enough to show both the shape of its arms and the depth of its disc. From edge to edge its visible disc spans about 94,000 light-years, close to the width of the Milky Way.
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 154 scientific papers indexed by SIMBAD, and recorded there under 9 different catalogue designations.
When this light set out
What a telescope records of NGC 1357 is light that left it about 96 million years ago; on Earth, dinosaurs were at their peak. The galaxy is moving away from us at about 2,005 km/s (4.5 million mph), carried by the expansion of the universe.
Finding it in the sky
NGC 1357 lies in Eridanus. It is best placed on winter evenings: around 9:30 pm in December it stands about 36° 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: NGC 1354 (1.6° away on the sky, at least 2,630,000 light-years from it); NGC 1421 (2.2° away on the sky, at least 3,750,000 light-years from it).
By apparent size it is number 396 of the 12,657 galaxies on the Galaxy Origins register.
Measurements
| Catalogue | PGC 13166 |
|---|---|
| Morphological type | Sab |
| Angular diameter | 3.36′ |
| Right ascension | 03h33m17.1s |
| Declination | -13°39′50.9″ |
| Constellation | Eridanus |
| Inclination | 42.9° |
| Light travel time | 96 million years |
| Bar | not recorded |
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 3.4 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.
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