NGC 2859 — S0-a in Leo Minor
S0-a in Leo Minor, 3.2 arcminutes across, its light 80 million years old. Measured by HyperLEDA, photographed by Pan-STARRS1. Recorded once.
About NGC 2859
What you are looking at
NGC 2859 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. It is tilted about 33° to our line of sight, enough to show both the shape of its arms and the depth of its disc. From edge to edge its visible disc spans about 74,000 light-years, about 76% of the Milky Way’s width.
What astronomers have recorded
It is cited in 272 scientific papers indexed by SIMBAD, and recorded there under 13 different catalogue designations.
When this light set out
The light that reaches us from NGC 2859 today set out about 80 million years ago, when dinosaurs were at their peak. The galaxy is moving away from us at about 1,671 km/s (3.7 million mph), carried by the expansion of the universe.
Finding it in the sky
In the sky, NGC 2859 sits within the constellation Leo Minor. It is best placed on spring evenings: around 9:30 pm in March it stands about 85° 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 5004 (0.2° away on the sky, at least 220,000 light-years from it); UGC 4988 (0.3° away on the sky, at least 430,000 light-years from it); UGC 5020 (0.4° away on the sky, at least 530,000 light-years from it); UGC 5015 (0.4° away on the sky, at least 540,000 light-years from it), and 3 more.
By apparent size it is number 451 of the 12,657 galaxies on the Galaxy Origins register.
Measurements
| Catalogue | PGC 26649 |
|---|---|
| Morphological type | S0-a |
| Angular diameter | 3.19′ |
| Right ascension | 09h24m18.5s |
| Declination | +34°30′48.5″ |
| Constellation | Leo Minor |
| Inclination | 32.9° |
| Light travel time | 80 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 3.2 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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