NGC 5101 — S0-a in Hydra
S0-a in Hydra, 5.9 arcminutes across, its light 89 million years old. Measured by HyperLEDA, photographed by Pan-STARRS1. Recorded once.
About NGC 5101
What you are looking at
NGC 5101 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 faces us almost squarely, which shows its full structure at once. From edge to edge its visible disc spans about 153,000 light-years, about 1.6 times the width of the Milky Way.
What astronomers have recorded
SIMBAD, the reference database astronomers use, classes it as a Seyfert galaxy: its nucleus shines brightly with the light of gas falling into its central black hole. One supernova has been recorded in it: SN 1986B. It is cited in 189 scientific papers indexed by SIMBAD, and recorded there under 25 different catalogue designations.
When this light set out
What a telescope records of NGC 5101 is light that left it about 89 million years ago; on Earth, dinosaurs were at their peak. The galaxy is moving away from us at about 1,858 km/s (4.2 million mph), carried by the expansion of the universe.
Finding it in the sky
In the sky, NGC 5101 sits within the constellation Hydra. It is best placed on spring evenings: around 9:30 pm in May it stands about 23° 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 5078 (0.4° away on the sky, at least 670,000 light-years from it); IC 4249 (1.3° away on the sky, at least 2,010,000 light-years from it).
By apparent size it is number 84 of the 12,657 galaxies on the Galaxy Origins register.
Measurements
| Catalogue | PGC 46661 |
|---|---|
| Morphological type | S0-a |
| Angular diameter | 5.90′ |
| Right ascension | 13h21m46.2s |
| Declination | -27°25′49.5″ |
| Constellation | Hydra |
| Inclination | 22.2° |
| Light travel time | 89 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 5.9 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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