IC 239 — SABc in Andromeda
SABc in Andromeda, 4.2 arcminutes across, its light 43 million years old. Measured by HyperLEDA, photographed by Pan-STARRS1. Recorded once.
About IC 239
What you are looking at
IC 239 is a late-type spiral: a small central bulge and open, loosely wound arms full of young stars and star-forming gas. A weak bar of stars crosses its centre. It faces us almost squarely, which shows its full structure at once. 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 member of a group of galaxies. It is cited in 116 scientific papers indexed by SIMBAD, and recorded there under 18 different catalogue designations.
When this light set out
What a telescope records of IC 239 is light that left it about 43 million years ago; on Earth, the planet had come through its hottest interval since the dinosaurs. The galaxy is moving away from us at about 903 km/s (2.0 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
In the sky, IC 239 sits within the constellation Andromeda. It is best placed on winter evenings: around 9:30 pm in December it stands about 89° 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 2014 (0.8° away on the sky, at least 570,000 light-years from it); NGC 1023 (0.8° away on the sky, at least 580,000 light-years from it); NGC 1023A (0.8° away on the sky, at least 620,000 light-years from it); UGC 2034 (1.6° away on the sky, at least 1,250,000 light-years from it), and 3 more.
By apparent size it is number 200 of the 12,657 galaxies on the Galaxy Origins register.
Measurements
| Catalogue | PGC 9899 |
|---|---|
| Morphological type | SABc |
| Angular diameter | 4.25′ |
| Right ascension | 02h36m27.8s |
| Declination | +38°58′08.5″ |
| Constellation | Andromeda |
| Inclination | 19.7° |
| Light travel time | 43 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 4.2 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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