Circinus Galaxy
| Galaxy PGC 50779 |
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|---|---|
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| Photo from the Hubble Space Telescope | |
| AladinLite | |
| Constellation | Circle |
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Position equinox : J2000.0 , epoch : J2000.0 |
|
| Right ascension | 14 h 13 m 10 s |
| declination | -65 ° 20 ′ 21 ″ |
| Appearance | |
| Morphological type | SA (s) b: / Sy2 |
| Brightness (visual) | 12.1 mag |
| Angular expansion | 6.9 ′ × 3 ′ |
| Physical data | |
| Redshift | 0.001448 ± 0.000010 |
| Radial velocity | 426 ± 25 km / s |
|
Stroke distance v rad / H 0 |
(12 ± 1) x 10 6 ly (3.64 ± 0.27) Mpc |
| diameter | 40,000 light years ly |
| history | |
| Discovery date | 1977 |
| Catalog names | |
| PGC 50779 • ESO 097-013 • IRAS 14092-6506 • 2MASX J14130990-6520204 • SGC 140918-6506.3 • HIPASS J1413-65 • LDCE 993 NED010 | |
The Circinus Galaxy ( PGC 50779 ) is a spiral type 2 Seyfert galaxy of the Hubble type Sb in the constellation Circle in the southern sky . It is the closest known Active Galaxy to us and is just 4 degrees below the Galactic Plane and about 13 million light years from the Milky Way .
The galaxy contains large amounts of turbulent gas that is concentrated in two rings around the center. The outer ring is about 700 light years from the center of the galaxy and shows strong star formation . The inner ring has a radius of about 130 light years.
Despite being a relatively nearby galaxy, it wasn't discovered until the 1970s as it is obscured by matter from our own galaxy.
The Type IIn supernova SN 1996cr was observed here.
Web links
Commons : Circinus Galaxy - collection of images, videos and audio files
- SIMBAD Astronomical Database
- Chandra X observatory : Chandra studies large and small black holes in nearby galaxies
- The Hubble European Space Agency Information Center Hubble images and information about the Circinus Galaxy
- The Circinus Galaxy - Astronomy Picture of the Day of December 4, 2000 (English).