NGC 150 — SBbc in Sculptor
SBbc in Sculptor, 3.5 arcminutes across, its light 76 million years old. Measured by HyperLEDA, photographed by Pan-STARRS1. Recorded once.
About NGC 150
What you are looking at
NGC 150 is a spiral of the same broad class astronomers give the Milky Way: a moderate bulge and clearly drawn arms. A bar of stars runs straight across its centre, as one does across the centre of the Milky Way. Its disc is steeply tilted, about 64° from face-on, so it appears as a long oval. From edge to edge its visible disc spans about 76,000 light-years, about 78% of the Milky Way’s width.
What astronomers have recorded
SIMBAD, the reference database astronomers use, classes it as a Seyfert galaxy: its nucleus shines brightly with the light of gas falling into its central black hole. One supernova has been recorded in it: SN 1990K. It is cited in 213 scientific papers indexed by SIMBAD, and recorded there under 25 different catalogue designations.
When this light set out
The light that reaches us from NGC 150 today set out about 76 million years ago, when dinosaurs were at their peak. The galaxy is moving away from us at about 1,578 km/s (3.5 million mph), carried by the expansion of the universe.
Finding it in the sky
NGC 150 lies in Sculptor. It is best placed on autumn evenings: around 9:30 pm in November 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: IC 1558 (2.5° away on the sky, at least 3,240,000 light-years from it).
By apparent size it is number 350 of the 12,657 galaxies on the Galaxy Origins register.
Measurements
| Catalogue | PGC 2052 |
|---|---|
| Morphological type | SBbc |
| Angular diameter | 3.48′ |
| Right ascension | 00h34m15.5s |
| Declination | -27°48′13.0″ |
| Constellation | Sculptor |
| Inclination | 64.5° |
| Light travel time | 76 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 3.5 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.
Take this galaxy — $1,290 Browse the Collection