NGC 2855 — S0-a in Hydra
S0-a in Hydra, 3.5 arcminutes across, its light 86 million years old. Measured by HyperLEDA, photographed by Pan-STARRS1. Recorded once.
About NGC 2855
What you are looking at
NGC 2855 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 steeply tilted, about 66° from face-on, so it appears as a long oval. From edge to edge its visible disc spans about 86,000 light-years, close to the width of the Milky Way.
What astronomers have recorded
SIMBAD, the reference database astronomers use, classes it as an emission-line galaxy: its spectrum shows the glow of gas lit by young stars. It is cited in 98 scientific papers indexed by SIMBAD, and recorded there under 11 different catalogue designations.
When this light set out
What a telescope records of NGC 2855 is light that left it about 86 million years ago; on Earth, dinosaurs were at their peak. The galaxy is moving away from us at about 1,795 km/s (4.0 million mph), carried by the expansion of the universe.
Finding it in the sky
In the sky, NGC 2855 sits within the constellation Hydra. It is best placed on spring evenings: around 9:30 pm in March it stands about 38° 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: NGC 2863 (1.6° away on the sky, at least 2,350,000 light-years from it).
By apparent size it is number 364 of the 12,657 galaxies on the Galaxy Origins register.
Measurements
| Catalogue | PGC 26483 |
|---|---|
| Morphological type | S0-a |
| Angular diameter | 3.45′ |
| Right ascension | 09h21m27.5s |
| Declination | -11°54′34.0″ |
| Constellation | Hydra |
| Inclination | 65.7° |
| Light travel time | 86 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 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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