NGC 2770 — Sc in Lynx
Sc in Lynx, 3.5 arcminutes across, its light 93 million years old. Measured by HyperLEDA, photographed by Pan-STARRS1. Recorded once.
About NGC 2770
NGC 2770 is sometimes called a supernova factory: several supernovae have been seen in it within just a few years, including one that X-ray telescopes caught in the act of exploding.
What you are looking at
NGC 2770 is a late-type spiral: a small central bulge and open, loosely wound arms full of young stars and star-forming gas. 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 93,000 light-years, close to 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. Four supernovae have been recorded in it, the first in 1999; the most recent include SN 2007uy, SN 2008D, SN 2015bh. It is cited in 290 scientific papers indexed by SIMBAD, and recorded there under 16 different catalogue designations.
When this light set out
The light that reaches us from NGC 2770 today set out about 93 million years ago, when dinosaurs were at their peak. The galaxy is moving away from us at about 1,947 km/s (4.4 million mph), carried by the expansion of the universe.
Finding it in the sky
NGC 2770 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.
Its neighbours
At almost the same distance from us, and so its neighbours in space as well as on the sky: UGC 4777 (1.6° away on the sky, at least 2,620,000 light-years from it); UGC 4834 (1.9° away on the sky, at least 3,090,000 light-years from it); NGC 2780 (1.9° away on the sky, at least 3,120,000 light-years from it); NGC 2793 (2.0° away on the sky, at least 3,230,000 light-years from it), and 3 more.
By apparent size it is number 362 of the 12,657 galaxies on the Galaxy Origins register.
Measurements
| Catalogue | PGC 25806 |
|---|---|
| Morphological type | Sc |
| Angular diameter | 3.45′ |
| Right ascension | 09h09m33.7s |
| Declination | +33°07′24.6″ |
| Constellation | Lynx |
| Inclination | 82.5° |
| Light travel time | 93 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.
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