IC 2163 — Sc in Canis Major
Sc in Canis Major, 3.4 arcminutes across, its light 134 million years old. Measured by HyperLEDA, photographed by Pan-STARRS1. Recorded once.
About IC 2163
IC 2163 is the smaller of two spirals in collision with NGC 2207. The pull of its larger neighbour has drawn it out into a long, curving tail.
What you are looking at
IC 2163 is a late-type spiral: a small central bulge and open, loosely wound arms full of young stars and star-forming gas. Its disc is steeply tilted, about 78° from face-on, so it appears as a long oval. From edge to edge its visible disc spans about 130,000 light-years, about 1.3 times the width of the Milky Way.
What astronomers have recorded
Two supernovae have been recorded in it, the first in 2003; the most recent include SN 2003H, SN 2018lab. It is cited in 173 scientific papers indexed by SIMBAD, and recorded there under 14 different catalogue designations.
When this light set out
Its light has been travelling for about 134 million years. When it left, the first birds had appeared. The galaxy is moving away from us at about 2,788 km/s (6.2 million mph), carried by the expansion of the universe.
Finding it in the sky
In the sky, IC 2163 sits within the constellation Canis Major. It is best placed on winter evenings: around 9:30 pm in February it stands about 29° 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 2207 (1′ away on the sky, at least 50,000 light-years from it); NGC 2216 (1.4° away on the sky, at least 3,180,000 light-years from it); NGC 2179 (2.0° away on the sky, at least 4,630,000 light-years from it); NGC 2223 (2.4° away on the sky, at least 5,530,000 light-years from it).
By apparent size it is number 388 of the 12,657 galaxies on the Galaxy Origins register.
Measurements
| Catalogue | PGC 18751 |
|---|---|
| Morphological type | Sc |
| Angular diameter | 3.37′ |
| Right ascension | 06h16m28.0s |
| Declination | -21°22′33.2″ |
| Constellation | Canis Major |
| Inclination | 78.2° |
| Light travel time | 134 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 3.4 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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