NGC 2654 — SBab in Ursa Major
SBab in Ursa Major, 4.4 arcminutes across, its light 64 million years old. Measured by HyperLEDA, photographed by Pan-STARRS1. Recorded once.
About NGC 2654
What you are looking at
NGC 2654 is an early-type spiral: a large, bright central bulge wrapped in smooth, tightly wound arms. A bar of stars runs straight across its centre, as one does across the centre of the Milky Way. We see it almost exactly edge-on, so its whole disc appears as one thin band of light, with dust showing as a dark line along its length. From edge to edge its visible disc spans about 83,000 light-years (taking its redshift distance, which for a galaxy this near is approximate), about 85% of the Milky Way’s width.
What astronomers have recorded
SIMBAD, the reference database astronomers use, classes it as a Seyfert galaxy: its nucleus is lit by gas falling into its central black hole. It is cited in 150 scientific papers indexed by SIMBAD, and recorded there under 19 different catalogue designations.
When this light set out
Its light has been travelling for about 64 million years. When it left, an asteroid had ended the age of dinosaurs. The galaxy is moving away from us at about 1,340 km/s (3.0 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 2654 lies in Ursa Major. 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 4549 (1.5° away on the sky, at least 1,690,000 light-years from it); NGC 2726 (2.0° away on the sky, at least 2,230,000 light-years from it); NGC 2742 (2.3° away on the sky, at least 2,560,000 light-years from it); UGC 4788 (2.7° away on the sky, at least 3,010,000 light-years from it).
By apparent size it is number 168 of the 12,657 galaxies on the Galaxy Origins register.
Measurements
| Catalogue | PGC 24784 |
|---|---|
| Morphological type | SBab |
| Angular diameter | 4.45′ |
| Right ascension | 08h49m11.8s |
| Declination | +60°13′16.3″ |
| Constellation | Ursa Major |
| Inclination | 90.0° |
| Light travel time | 64 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 4.4 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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