NGC 660 — Sa in Pisces
Sa in Pisces, 4.6 arcminutes across, its light 41 million years old. Measured by HyperLEDA, photographed by Pan-STARRS1. Recorded once.
About NGC 660
NGC 660 is a polar ring galaxy: a ring of gas, dust and stars circles it almost at right angles to its main disc, most likely the remains of a collision with another galaxy. In 2012 its core flared dramatically in radio light.
What you are looking at
NGC 660 is an early-type spiral: a large, bright central bulge wrapped in smooth, tightly wound arms. Its disc is steeply tilted, about 79° from face-on, so it appears as a long oval. From edge to edge its visible disc spans about 54,000 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 Seyfert galaxy: its nucleus is lit by gas falling into its central black hole, though dust hides part of that glow from us. Boris Vorontsov-Velyaminov listed it as VV 979 in his catalogue of interacting galaxies. It is cited in 597 scientific papers indexed by SIMBAD, and recorded there under 49 different catalogue designations.
When this light set out
The light that reaches us from NGC 660 today set out about 41 million years ago, when the planet had come through its hottest interval since the dinosaurs. The galaxy is moving away from us at about 852 km/s (1.9 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
NGC 660 lies in Pisces. It is best placed on autumn evenings: around 9:30 pm in November it stands about 64° 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 1195 (0.4° away on the sky, at least 260,000 light-years from it); UGC 1200 (0.5° away on the sky, at least 350,000 light-years from it); UGC 1176 (2.4° away on the sky, at least 1,690,000 light-years from it); UGC 1171 (2.4° away on the sky, at least 1,710,000 light-years from it), and 1 more.
By apparent size it is number 156 of the 12,657 galaxies on the Galaxy Origins register.
Measurements
| Catalogue | PGC 6318 |
|---|---|
| Morphological type | Sa |
| Angular diameter | 4.57′ |
| Right ascension | 01h43m02.4s |
| Declination | +13°38′42.8″ |
| Constellation | Pisces |
| Inclination | 78.8° |
| Light travel time | 41 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 4.6 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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