NGC 2549 — S0 in Lynx
S0 in Lynx, 3.6 arcminutes across, its light 52 million years old. Measured by HyperLEDA, photographed by Pan-STARRS1. Recorded once.
About NGC 2549
What you are looking at
NGC 2549 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 55,000 light-years (taking its redshift distance, which for a galaxy this near is approximate), about half the width of the Milky Way.
What astronomers have recorded
It is cited in 273 scientific papers indexed by SIMBAD, and recorded there under 12 different catalogue designations.
When this light set out
The light that reaches us from NGC 2549 today set out about 52 million years ago, when the planet had come through its hottest interval since the dinosaurs. The galaxy is moving away from us at about 1,076 km/s (2.4 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
In the sky, NGC 2549 sits within the constellation Lynx. From most of the United States it never sets: it circles the north celestial pole all year, and stands highest on spring evenings, around March.
Its neighbours
At almost the same distance from us, and so its neighbours in space as well as on the sky: UGC 4314 (0.5° away on the sky, at least 410,000 light-years from it); UGC 4241 (1.3° away on the sky, at least 1,150,000 light-years from it); UGC 4121 (2.7° away on the sky, at least 2,410,000 light-years from it).
By apparent size it is number 305 of the 12,657 galaxies on the Galaxy Origins register.
Measurements
| Catalogue | PGC 23313 |
|---|---|
| Morphological type | S0 |
| Angular diameter | 3.63′ |
| Right ascension | 08h18m58.4s |
| Declination | +57°48′11.0″ |
| Constellation | Lynx |
| Inclination | 90.0° |
| Light travel time | 52 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 3.6 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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