NGC 2541 — SABc in Lynx
SABc in Lynx, 3.0 arcminutes across, its light 26 million years old. Measured by HyperLEDA, photographed by Pan-STARRS1. Recorded once.
About NGC 2541
NGC 2541 is a loose, low-surface-brightness spiral in Lynx in which Hubble measured Cepheid stars as part of the Key Project on the universe's expansion.
What you are looking at
NGC 2541 is a late-type spiral: a small central bulge and open, loosely wound arms full of young stars and star-forming gas. A weak bar of stars crosses its centre. It is tilted about 60° 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 23,000 light-years (taking its redshift distance, which for a galaxy this near is approximate), about a quarter 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. It is cited in 336 scientific papers indexed by SIMBAD, and recorded there under 17 different catalogue designations.
When this light set out
Its light has been travelling for about 26 million years. When it left, Antarctica had begun to freeze. The galaxy is moving away from us at about 547 km/s (1.2 million mph), carried by the expansion of the universe. For a galaxy this close, its own motion through space is a large share of that speed, so the distance worked out from it is approximate; distances measured from individual stars in it can differ.
Finding it in the sky
NGC 2541 lies in Lynx. It is best placed on spring evenings: around 9:30 pm in March it stands about 81° high in the north, close to overhead, 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 2552 (1.2° away on the sky, at least 560,000 light-years from it); NGC 2500 (2.7° away on the sky, at least 1,220,000 light-years from it).
By apparent size it is number 511 of the 12,657 galaxies on the Galaxy Origins register.
Measurements
| Catalogue | PGC 23110 |
|---|---|
| Morphological type | SABc |
| Angular diameter | 3.02′ |
| Right ascension | 08h14m40.1s |
| Declination | +49°03′41.8″ |
| Constellation | Lynx |
| Inclination | 59.5° |
| Light travel time | 26 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 3.0 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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