NGC 660

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Galaxy
NGC 660
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Amateur recording
Amateur recording
AladinLite
Constellation fishes
Position
equinoxJ2000.0 , epoch : J2000.0
Right ascension 01 h 43 m 02.4 s
declination + 13 ° 38 ′ 42 ″
Appearance
Morphological type SB (s) a pec; HII LINER  
Brightness  (visual) 10.7 mag
Brightness  (B-band) 11.7 mag
Angular expansion 8.3 ′ × 3.2 ′
Position angle 170 °
Surface brightness 14.1 mag / arcmin²
Physical data
Affiliation M74 group  
Redshift 0.002835 ± 0.000003  
Radial velocity 850 ± 1 km / s  
Stroke distance
v rad  / H 0
(42 ± 3)  x  10 6  ly
(12.8 ± 0.9)  Mpc 
history
discovery Wilhelm Herschel
Discovery date October 16, 1784
Catalog names
NGC  660 • UGC  1201 • PGC  6318 • CGCG  437-012 • MCG  + 2-05-13 • IRAS  01403 + 1323 • GC  390 • H  II-253 • PRC C-13

NGC 660 is a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Pisces , approximately 42 million light years from the Milky Way . NGC  660 is one of the few polar ring galaxies . It was discovered on October 16, 1784 by the German-British astronomer Wilhelm Herschel .

In 2012, observations with radio telescopes showed a sudden increase in activity. More recent high-resolution observations show a new, extremely bright radio source within NGC 660. A possible interpretation is a growing supermassive black hole, presumably with a mass of 20 million suns. For the first time it can now be observed how an extremely massive black hole develops its activity.

Web links

Commons : NGC 660  - collection of images, videos, and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. a b c d e NASA / IPAC EXTRAGALACTIC DATABASE
  2. a b c d e f SEDS : NGC 660
  3. Seligman
  4. Andreas Wilkens (anw): Astronomers observe the awakening black hole. In: Heise online . July 9, 2015, accessed July 9, 2015 .