NGC 128 — S0 in Pisces
S0 in Pisces, 3.2 arcminutes across, its light 197 million years old. Measured by HyperLEDA, photographed by Pan-STARRS1. Recorded once.
About NGC 128
What you are looking at
NGC 128 is a lenticular galaxy: a disc galaxy that has largely used up the gas it needs to form new stars, so its disc is smooth and has no spiral arms. Its disc is turned almost exactly side-on to us: the galaxy appears as a narrow blade of light, and its dust as a dark seam running along it. From edge to edge its visible disc spans about 180,000 light-years, about 1.8 times the width of the Milky Way.
What astronomers have recorded
SIMBAD, the reference database astronomers use, classes it as a member of a group of galaxies. One supernova has been recorded in it: SN 2014da. It is cited in 211 scientific papers indexed by SIMBAD, and recorded there under 15 different catalogue designations.
When this light set out
The light that reaches us from NGC 128 today set out about 197 million years ago, when dinosaurs had begun to dominate. The galaxy is moving away from us at about 4,130 km/s (9.2 million mph), carried by the expansion of the universe.
Finding it in the sky
In the sky, NGC 128 sits within the constellation Pisces. It is best placed on autumn evenings: around 9:30 pm in November it stands about 53° 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: UGC 281 (0.4° away on the sky, at least 1,370,000 light-years from it); UGC 277 (0.4° away on the sky, at least 1,530,000 light-years from it); UGC 275 (0.5° away on the sky, at least 1,630,000 light-years from it); UGC 282 (0.6° away on the sky, at least 1,950,000 light-years from it), and 3 more.
By apparent size it is number 459 of the 12,657 galaxies on the Galaxy Origins register.
Measurements
| Catalogue | PGC 1791 |
|---|---|
| Morphological type | S0 |
| Angular diameter | 3.15′ |
| Right ascension | 00h29m15.1s |
| Declination | +02°51′50.6″ |
| Constellation | Pisces |
| Inclination | 90.0° |
| Light travel time | 197 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 3.2 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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