NGC 253, also known as the Silver Coin Galaxy or Sculptor Galaxy, is a large Sc-type spiral galaxy seen almost from the side. Star formation is also high in the northeast of NGC 253’s disk, where a number of red supergiant stars can be found, and there are young stars in its halo as well as some amounts of neutral hydrogen. The Sculptor Galaxy is an intermediate spiral galaxy in the constellation Sculptor. These elements are typical of spiral galaxies.
The galaxy’s proximity to Earth makes it an ideal target for amateur astronomers who can see the southern sky and for astronomers who want to learn more about the structure of these impressive star cities.
What kind of galaxy is NGC 253?
Most other galaxies belonging to the Sculptor group are only weakly gravitationally bound to this nucleus. The Sculptor Galaxy is at the centre of the Sculptor Group, one of the galaxy groups closest to the Milky Way. But somehow it doesn’t seem right unless I’m up in the mountains, surrounded by pine trees, holding binoculars. In 1961, Allan Sandage wrote in the Hubble Atlas of Galaxies that the Sculptor Galaxy is the prototypical example of a special subset of Sc systems.
NGC 253 is also classified as a starburst galaxy (the closest to Earth) because of its high star formation rate and the dense dust clouds in its core.
What kind of galaxy is NGC 300?
The spectrum of NGC 300-OT observed with Spitzer shows strong, broad emission features at 8 μm and 12 μm. ESO has released a spectacular new image of NGC 300, a spiral galaxy similar to the Milky Way and located in the nearby Sculptor group of galaxies. The distribution of stars is most pronounced in the central bulge, where the older stars congregate, and tapers off along the arms where the younger stars are located. NGC 300 is often used as a prototype of a spiral galaxy, because on optical images it has flowing spiral arms and a bright central region with older (and therefore redder) stars.
The following image is of NGC 300 from the Digitised Sky Survey 2 (DSS2 – see imprint), taken in the red channel.
Which NGC is our galaxy?
NGC 4013 shows several examples of these stellar nurseries near the centre of the image, in front of the dark band along the galaxy’s equator. NGC 1, sometimes referred to as GC 1, UGC 57, PGC 564 or Holm 2a, is an intermediate spiral galaxy of morphological type Sbc located about 210 to 215 million light-years from the Solar System in the constellation Pegasus. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captured this remarkable view of a perfectly angular galaxy, NGC 4013. NGC 4013 shows several examples of these stellar nurseries near the centre of the image, lying in front of the dark band along the galaxy’s equator. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope took this remarkable image of a perfectly edge-on galaxy, NGC 4013. This spectacular image of the large spiral galaxy NGC 1232 was taken on 21 September 1998 during a period of good observing conditions.
