UFO Galaxy (NGC 2683) — Sb in Lynx
The UFO Galaxy (NGC 2683) as a framed fine art print. Sb in Lynx, 9.5 arcminutes across, its light 20 million years old. Measured by HyperLEDA, photographed…
About UFO Galaxy (NGC 2683)
The UFO Galaxy owes its name to its outline: a spiral seen almost edge-on, it looks like a classic flying saucer, with a bright central bulge and a long, smooth disc. In Hubble's images its disc is laced with dark dust, and the stars of its outer regions show in a soft blue haze. It lies in Lynx, a constellation with few bright galaxies, which makes it one of that region's best sights.
What you are looking at
The UFO Galaxy is a spiral with a sizeable central bulge and well-defined arms, close in type to 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 56,000 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
SIMBAD, the reference database astronomers use, classes it as a galaxy with an active nucleus, powered by its central black hole. It is cited in 483 scientific papers indexed by SIMBAD, and recorded there under 18 different catalogue designations.
When this light set out
The light that reaches us from the UFO Galaxy today set out about 20 million years ago, when grasslands were spreading across the continents. The galaxy is moving away from us at about 421 km/s (0.9 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
The UFO Galaxy lies in Lynx. It is best placed on spring evenings: around 9:30 pm in March it stands about 83° high in the south, seen from the middle of the United States.
By apparent size it is number 20 of the 12,657 galaxies on the Galaxy Origins register.
Measurements
| Catalogue | PGC 24930 |
|---|---|
| Morphological type | Sb |
| Angular diameter | 9.48′ |
| Right ascension | 08h52m41.5s |
| Declination | +33°25′21.0″ |
| Constellation | Lynx |
| Inclination | 82.9° |
| Light travel time | 20 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 9.5 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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