NGC 972 — Sab in Aries
Sab in Aries, 3.3 arcminutes across, its light 73 million years old. Measured by HyperLEDA, photographed by Pan-STARRS1. Recorded once.
About NGC 972
What you are looking at
NGC 972 is an early-type spiral: a large, bright central bulge wrapped in smooth, tightly wound 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 70,000 light-years, about 72% of the Milky Way’s width.
What astronomers have recorded
It is cited in 179 scientific papers indexed by SIMBAD, and recorded there under 30 different catalogue designations.
When this light set out
What a telescope records of NGC 972 is light that left it about 73 million years ago; on Earth, dinosaurs were at their peak. The galaxy is moving away from us at about 1,518 km/s (3.4 million mph), carried by the expansion of the universe.
Finding it in the sky
NGC 972 lies in Aries. It is best placed on winter evenings: around 9:30 pm in December it stands about 79° 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 1056 (2.0° away on the sky, at least 2,560,000 light-years from it).
By apparent size it is number 413 of the 12,657 galaxies on the Galaxy Origins register.
Measurements
| Catalogue | PGC 9788 |
|---|---|
| Morphological type | Sab |
| Angular diameter | 3.31′ |
| Right ascension | 02h34m13.4s |
| Declination | +29°18′40.4″ |
| Constellation | Aries |
| Inclination | 65.8° |
| Light travel time | 73 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 3.3 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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