NGC 891

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NGC 891
NGC891HunterWilson.jpg
NGC 891
Observation data (J2000 epoch)
Constellation Andromeda
Right ascension 02h 22m 33.4s [1]
Declination +42° 20′ 57″ [1]
Redshift 528 ± 4 km/s [1]
Distance 27.3 ± 1.8 Mly (8.4 ± 0.5 Mpc) [2]
Apparent magnitude  (V)10.8 [1]
Characteristics
Type SA(s)b? [1]
Apparent size  (V)13′.5 × 2′.5 [1]
Other designations
UGC 1831, PGC 9031, [1] Caldwell  23

NGC 891 (also known as Caldwell 23, the Silver Sliver Galaxy, and the Outer Limits Galaxy) is an edge-on unbarred spiral galaxy about 30 million light-years away in the constellation Andromeda. It was discovered by William Herschel on October 6, 1784. [3] The galaxy is a member of the NGC 1023 group of galaxies in the Local Supercluster. It has an H II nucleus. [4]

Contents

The object is visible in small to moderate size telescopes as a faint elongated smear of light with a dust lane visible in larger apertures.

In 1999, the Hubble Space Telescope imaged NGC 891 in infrared.

In 2005, due to its attractiveness and scientific interest, NGC 891 was selected to be the first light image of the Large Binocular Telescope. [5] [6] In 2012, it was again used as a first light image of the Lowell Discovery Telescope with the Large Monolithic Imager. [7]

Supernova SN 1986J was discovered on August 21, 1986 at apparent magnitude 14. [8]

Properties

NGC 891 looks as the Milky Way would look like when viewed edge-on (some astronomers have even noted how similar to NGC 891 our galaxy looks as seen from the Southern Hemisphere [9] ) and, in fact, both galaxies are considered very similar in terms of luminosity and size; [10] studies of the dynamics of its molecular hydrogen have also proven the likely presence of a central bar. [11] Despite this, recent high-resolution images of its dusty disk show unusual filamentary patterns. These patterns are extending into the halo of the galaxy, away from its galactic disk. Scientists presume that supernova explosions caused this interstellar dust to be thrown out of the galactic disk toward the halo. [12]

It may also be possible that the light pressure from surrounding stars causes this phenomenon. [13]

A close-up infrared Hubble Space Telescope (HST) image of NGC 891. Credit: HST/NASA/ESA NGC 891 Hubble.jpg
A close-up infrared Hubble Space Telescope (HST) image of NGC 891. Credit: HST/NASA/ESA

The galaxy is a member of a small group of galaxies, sometimes called the NGC 1023 Group. Other galaxies in this group are the NGCs 925, 949, 959, 1003, 1023, and 1058, and the UGCs 1807, 1865 (DDO 19), 2014 (DDO 22), 2023 (DDO 25), 2034 (DDO 24), and 2259. [14] Its outskirts are populated by multiple low-surface brightness, coherent, and vast substructures, like giant streams that loop around the parent galaxy up to distances of approximately 50 kpc. The bulge and the disk are surrounded by a flat and thick cocoon-like stellar structure. These have vertical and radial distances of up to 15 kpc and 40 kpc, respectively, [15] and are interpreted as the remnant of a satellite galaxy disrupted and in the process of being absorbed by NGC 891. [16]

NGC 891 (north part) close-up by HST, 3.24' view. Credit: NASA/STScI/WikiSky NGC 891 Hubble north part.jpg
NGC 891 (north part) close-up by HST, 3.24′ view. Credit: NASA/STScI/WikiSky

NGC 891 appears alongside M67, the Sombrero Galaxy, the Pinwheel Galaxy, NGC 5128, NGC 1300, M81, and the Andromeda Galaxy in the end credits of the Outer Limits TV series, which is why it is occasionally called the Outer Limits Galaxy. [17] [18] [19] [20]

The soundtrack of the 1974 film Dark Star by John Carpenter features a muzak-style instrumental piece called "When Twilight Falls on NGC 891". [21]

The first solo album by Edgar Froese, Aqua , also released in 1974, contained a track called "NGC 891". Side 2 of the album, which included this track, was unusual in having been a rare example of a commercially issued piece of music recorded using the artificial head system.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Galaxy</span> Large gravitationally bound system of stars and interstellar matter

A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, and dark matter bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Greek galaxias (γαλαξίας), literally 'milky', a reference to the Milky Way galaxy that contains the Solar System. Galaxies, averaging an estimated 100 billion stars, range in size from dwarfs with less than a hundred million stars, to the largest galaxies known – supergiants with one hundred trillion stars, each orbiting its galaxy's center of mass. Most of the mass in a typical galaxy is in the form of dark matter, with only a few percent of that mass visible in the form of stars and nebulae. Supermassive black holes are a common feature at the centres of galaxies.

The following is a timeline of galaxies, clusters of galaxies, and large-scale structure of the universe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andromeda Galaxy</span> Barred spiral galaxy in the Local Group

The Andromeda Galaxy is a barred spiral galaxy and is the nearest major galaxy to the Milky Way. It was originally named the Andromeda Nebula and is cataloged as Messier 31, M31, and NGC 224. Andromeda has a diameter of about 46.56 kiloparsecs and is approximately 765 kpc from Earth. The galaxy's name stems from the area of Earth's sky in which it appears, the constellation of Andromeda, which itself is named after the princess who was the wife of Perseus in Greek mythology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Triangulum Galaxy</span> Spiral galaxy in the constellation Triangulum

The Triangulum Galaxy is a spiral galaxy 2.73 million light-years (ly) from Earth in the constellation Triangulum. It is catalogued as Messier 33 or NGC (New General Catalogue) 598. With the D25 isophotal diameter of 18.74 kiloparsecs (61,100 light-years), the Triangulum Galaxy is the third-largest member of the Local Group of galaxies, behind the Andromeda Galaxy and the Milky Way.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black Eye Galaxy</span> Spiral galaxy in the constellation Coma Berenices

The Black Eye Galaxy is a relatively isolated spiral galaxy 17 million light-years away in the mildly northern constellation of Coma Berenices. It was discovered by Edward Pigott in March 1779, and independently by Johann Elert Bode in April of the same year, as well as by Charles Messier the next year. A dark band of absorbing dust partially in front of its bright nucleus gave rise to its nicknames of the "Black Eye", "Evil Eye", or "Sleeping Beauty" galaxy. M64 is well known among amateur astronomers due to its form in small telescopes and visibility across inhabited latitudes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Whirlpool Galaxy</span> Galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici

The Whirlpool Galaxy, also known as Messier 51a (M51a) or NGC 5194, is an interacting grand-design spiral galaxy with a Seyfert 2 active galactic nucleus. It lies in the constellation Canes Venatici, and was the first galaxy to be classified as a spiral galaxy. It is 7.22 megaparsecs away and 23.58 kiloparsecs (76,900 ly) in diameter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sombrero Galaxy</span> Galaxy in the constellation Virgo

The Sombrero Galaxy is a peculiar galaxy of unclear classification in the constellation borders of Virgo and Corvus, being about 9.55 megaparsecs from the Milky Way galaxy. It is a member of the Virgo II Groups, a series of galaxies and galaxy clusters strung out from the southern edge of the Virgo Supercluster. It has an isophotal diameter of approximately 29.09 to 32.32 kiloparsecs, making it slightly bigger in size than the Milky Way.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NGC 404</span> Galaxy in the constellation Andromeda

NGC 404 is a field galaxy located about 10 million light years away in the constellation Andromeda. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1784, and is visible through small telescopes. NGC 404 lies just beyond the Local Group and does not appear gravitationally bound to it. It is located within 7 arc-minutes of second magnitude star Mirach, making it a difficult target to observe or photograph and granting it the nickname "Mirach's Ghost".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Omega Centauri</span> Globular cluster in the constellation Centaurus

Omega Centauri is a globular cluster in the constellation of Centaurus that was first identified as a non-stellar object by Edmond Halley in 1677. Located at a distance of 17,090 light-years, it is the largest-known globular cluster in the Milky Way at a diameter of roughly 150 light-years. It is estimated to contain approximately 10 million stars, and a total mass equivalent to 4 million solar masses, making it the most massive-known globular cluster in the Milky Way.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NGC 3115</span> Galaxy in the constellation Sextans

NGC 3115 is a field lenticular (S0) galaxy in the constellation Sextans. The galaxy was discovered by William Herschel on February 22, 1787. At about 32 million light-years away from Earth, it is several times bigger than the Milky Way. It is a lenticular (S0) galaxy because it contains a disk and a central bulge of stars, but without a detectable spiral pattern. NGC 3115 is seen almost exactly edge-on, but was nevertheless mis-classified as elliptical. There is some speculation that NGC 3115, in its youth, was a quasar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Messier 106</span> Galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici

Messier 106 is an intermediate spiral galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici. It was discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1781. M106 is at a distance of about 22 to 25 million light-years away from Earth. M106 contains an active nucleus classified as a Type 2 Seyfert, and the presence of a central supermassive black hole has been demonstrated from radio-wavelength observations of the rotation of a disk of molecular gas orbiting within the inner light-year around the black hole. NGC 4217 is a possible companion galaxy of Messier 106.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sculptor Galaxy</span> Intermediate spiral galaxy in the constellation Sculptor

The Sculptor Galaxy is an intermediate spiral galaxy in the constellation Sculptor. The Sculptor Galaxy is a starburst galaxy, which means that it is currently undergoing a period of intense star formation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NGC 6946</span> Galaxy in the constellations Cepheus & Cygnus

NGC 6946, sometimes referred to as the Fireworks Galaxy, is a face-on intermediate spiral galaxy with a small bright nucleus, whose location in the sky straddles the boundary between the northern constellations of Cepheus and Cygnus. Its distance from Earth is about 25.2 million light-years or 7.72 megaparsecs, similar to the distance of M101 in the constellation Ursa Major. Both were once considered to be part of the Local Group, but are now known to be among the dozen bright spiral galaxies near the Milky Way but beyond the confines of the Local Group. NGC 6946 lies within the Virgo Supercluster.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NGC 147</span> Galaxy in the constellation Cassiopeia

NGC 147 is a dwarf spheroidal galaxy about 2.58 Mly away in the constellation Cassiopeia. NGC 147 is a member of the Local group of galaxies and a satellite galaxy of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31). It forms a physical pair with the nearby galaxy NGC 185, another remote satellite of M31. It was discovered by John Herschel in September 1829. Visually it is both fainter and slightly larger than NGC 185. This means that NGC 147 is more difficult to see than NGC 185, which is visible in small telescopes. In the Webb Society Deep-Sky Observer's Handbook, the visual appearance of NGC 147 is described as follows:

Large, quite faint, irregularly round; it brightens in the middle to a stellar nucleus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NGC 7331</span> Galaxy in the constellation Pegasus

NGC 7331, also known as Caldwell 30, is an unbarred spiral galaxy about 40 million light-years (12 Mpc) away in the constellation Pegasus. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1784. NGC 7331 is the brightest galaxy in the field of a visual grouping known as the NGC 7331 Group of galaxies. In fact, the other members of the group, NGC 7335, 7336, 7337 and 7340, lie far in the background at distances of approximately 300-350 million light years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Milky Way</span> Galaxy containing the Solar System

The Milky Way is the galaxy that includes the Solar System, with the name describing the galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked eye. The term Milky Way is a translation of the Latin via lactea, from the Greek γαλαξίας κύκλος, meaning "milky circle". From Earth, the Milky Way appears as a band because its disk-shaped structure is viewed from within. Galileo Galilei first resolved the band of light into individual stars with his telescope in 1610. Until the early 1920s, most astronomers thought that the Milky Way contained all the stars in the Universe. Following the 1920 Great Debate between the astronomers Harlow Shapley and Heber Doust Curtis, observations by Edwin Hubble showed that the Milky Way is just one of many galaxies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NGC 2841</span> Galaxy in the constellation Ursa Major

NGC 2841 is an unbarred spiral galaxy in the northern circumpolar constellation of Ursa Major. It was discovered on 9 March 1788 by German-born astronomer William Herschel. J. L. E. Dreyer, the author of the New General Catalogue, described it as, "very bright, large, very much extended 151°, very suddenly much brighter middle equal to 10th magnitude star". Initially thought to be about 30 million light-years distant, a 2001 Hubble Space Telescope survey of the galaxy's Cepheid variables determined its distance to be approximately 14.1 megaparsecs or 46 million light-years. The optical size of the galaxy is 8.1′ × 3.5′.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NGC 4550</span> Galaxy in the constellation Virgo

NGC 4550 is a barred lenticular galaxy located in the constellation of Virgo that can be seen with amateur telescopes. It lies at a distance of 50 million light-years from the Milky Way and is a member of the Virgo Cluster.

The Ophiuchus Superbubble is an astronomical phenomenon located in the Ophiuchus constellation, with a center around ℓ ≈ 30 °. This giant superbubble was first discovered in a 2007 study of extraplanar neutral hydrogen in the disk-halo transition of the Galaxy. The top extends to galactic latitudes over 25°, a distance of about 7 kpc. The Green Bank radio telescope has measured more than 220,000 HI spectra both in and around this structure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NGC 4636</span> Galaxy in the constellation Virgo

NGC 4636 is an elliptical galaxy located in the constellation Virgo. It is a member of the NGC 4753 Group of galaxies, which is a member of the Virgo II Groups, a series of galaxies and galaxy clusters strung out from the southern edge of the Virgo Supercluster. It is located at a distance of about 55 million light years from Earth, which, given its apparent dimensions, means that NGC 4636 is about 105,000 light years across.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database". Results for NGC 891. Retrieved 2006-11-18.
  2. ↑ J. L. Tonry; A. Dressler; J. P. Blakeslee; E. A. Ajhar; et al. (2001). "The SBF Survey of Galaxy Distances. IV. SBF Magnitudes, Colors, and Distances". Astrophysical Journal. 546 (2): 681–693. arXiv: astro-ph/0011223 . Bibcode:2001ApJ...546..681T. doi:10.1086/318301. S2CID   17628238.
  3. ↑ Seligman, Courtney. "NGC 891". Celestial Atlas. Retrieved 8 November 2018.
  4. ↑ Ho, Luis C.; Filippenko, Alexei V.; Sargent, Wallace L. W. (October 1997). "A Search for "Dwarf" Seyfert Nuclei. III. Spectroscopic Parameters and Properties of the Host Galaxies". Astrophysical Journal Supplement. 112 (2): 315–390. arXiv: astro-ph/9704107 . Bibcode:1997ApJS..112..315H. doi:10.1086/313041. S2CID   17086638.
  5. ↑ "First Light Information". Large Binocular Telescope Observatory. 2008. Archived from the original on 9 July 2013. Retrieved 10 January 2015.
  6. ↑ "LBT "First Light" Image of NGC 891". Archived from the original on 2015-02-28. Retrieved 2015-02-28.
  7. ↑ Vitron, Tom. "Lowell's NSF-funded Large Monolithic Imager sees first light". Lowell Observatory. Archived from the original on 2 November 2012. Retrieved 27 September 2012.
  8. ↑ "List of Supernovae". Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (IAU). Retrieved 2010-05-19.
  9. ↑ The Milky Way in relation to other galaxies
  10. ↑ Karachentsev, Igor D.; Karachentseva, Valentina E.; Huchtmeier, Walter K.; Makarov, Dmitry I. (2003). "A Catalog of Neighboring Galaxies". The Astronomical Journal. 127 (4): 2031–2068. Bibcode:2004AJ....127.2031K. doi: 10.1086/382905 .
  11. ↑ Garcia-Burillo, S.; Guelin, M. (1995). "The distorted kinematics of molecular gas in the center of NGC 891". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 299: 657. Bibcode:1995A&A...299..657G.
  12. ↑ Nemiroff, R.; Bonnell, J., eds. (3 July 2002). "Interstellar Dust Bunnies of NGC 891". Astronomy Picture of the Day . NASA . Retrieved 2011-01-29.
  13. ↑ "NGC 891 in Andromeda". Wilhelm-Förster Observatory, Berlin. 2001. Retrieved 2011-01-29.
  14. ↑ "NGC 891". SEDS. 2009. Retrieved 2011-01-29.
  15. ↑ Mouhcine; Ibata; Rejkuba (2010). "A panoramic view of the Milky Way analogue NGC 891". The Astrophysical Journal. 714 (1): L12–L15. arXiv: 1002.0461 . Bibcode:2010ApJ...714L..12M. doi:10.1088/2041-8205/714/1/L12. S2CID   119245924.
  16. ↑ Shih, Hsin-Yi; Méndez, Roberto H. (2010). "Possible Stellar Streams in the Edge-on Spiral NGC 891 Discovered from Kinematics of Planetary Nebulae". The Astrophysical Journal Letters. 725 (1): L97–L100. Bibcode:2010ApJ...725L..97S. doi: 10.1088/2041-8205/725/1/L97 .
  17. ↑ Bakich, Michael E. "The Outer Limits universe". Astronomy.com. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
  18. ↑ "NGC891 - The Outer Limits Galaxy | Barry Etter". Sky & Telescope. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
  19. ↑ ""Please Stand By" - The ORIGINAL opening titles to "The Outer Limits!!"". Youtube. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
  20. ↑ "GB The Outer Limits end credits with music". Youtube. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
  21. ↑ The Cinema of John Carpenter. Wallflower Press. 2004. p. 53. ISBN   978-1-904764-14-4.
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