NGC 2280 — Sc in Canis Major
Sc in Canis Major, 6.5 arcminutes across, its light 92 million years old. Measured by HyperLEDA, photographed by Pan-STARRS1. Recorded once.
About NGC 2280
What you are looking at
NGC 2280 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 66° from face-on, so it appears as a long oval. From edge to edge its visible disc spans about 174,000 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 an emission-line galaxy: its spectrum shows the glow of gas lit by young stars. One supernova has been recorded in it: SN 2001fz. It is cited in 138 scientific papers indexed by SIMBAD, and recorded there under 20 different catalogue designations.
When this light set out
Its light has been travelling for about 92 million years. When it left, dinosaurs were at their peak. The galaxy is moving away from us at about 1,912 km/s (4.3 million mph), carried by the expansion of the universe.
Finding it in the sky
In the sky, NGC 2280 sits within the constellation Canis Major. It is best placed on winter evenings: around 9:30 pm in February it stands about 22° 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 2295 (1.1° away on the sky, at least 1,710,000 light-years from it); NGC 2293 (1.1° away on the sky, at least 1,750,000 light-years from it).
By apparent size it is number 58 of the 12,657 galaxies on the Galaxy Origins register.
Measurements
| Catalogue | PGC 19531 |
|---|---|
| Morphological type | Sc |
| Angular diameter | 6.53′ |
| Right ascension | 06h44m49.1s |
| Declination | -27°38′18.6″ |
| Constellation | Canis Major |
| Inclination | 66.2° |
| Light travel time | 92 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 6.5 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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