NGC 1376
Galaxy in the constellation Eridanus
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
NGC 1376 is a spiral galaxy located around 180 million light-years away in the constellation Eridanus.[1] It was discovered in 1785 by William Herschel, and it is 79,000 light-years across.[1] NGC 1376 is not known to have an active galactic nuclei, but it does have lots of star-forming regions.[2][3]
| NGC 1376 | |
|---|---|
A Hubble Space Telescope (HST) image of NGC 1376 | |
| Observation data (J2000 epoch) | |
| Constellation | Eridanus |
| Right ascension | 03h 37m 05.80s[1] |
| Declination | −05° 02′ 36″[1] |
| Redshift | 0.013873±0.00003[1] |
| Distance | 180 Mly (55.1 Mpc)[2] |
| Apparent magnitude (V) | 12.1[2] |
| Characteristics | |
| Type | SA(s)cd[1] |
| Size | 71,000 ly |
| Apparent size (V) | 1.95 x 1.82[3] |
| Notable features | Older stars near core |
| Other designations | |
| IRAS 03346-0512,[1] MCG-01-10-011,[1] PGC 13352,[1] GSC 04722-00875[1] | |
Characteristics
Concentrated along the spiral arms of NGC 1376, bright blue knots of gas highlight areas of active star formation.[4] These regions show an excess of light at ultraviolet (UV) wavelengths because they contain brilliant clusters of hot, newborn stars that are emitting UV light.[2] The less intense, red areas near the core and between the arms consist mainly of older stars.[4][2] The reddish dust lanes delineate cooler, denser regions where interstellar clouds collapse to form new stars.[1] Behind the spiral arms is a sprinkling of reddish background galaxies.[2]
NGC 1376 belongs to a class of spirals that are seen nearly face on from our line of sight.[1] Its orientation aids astronomers in studying details and features of the galaxy from a relatively unobscured vantage point.[2]
Supernovae
Three supernovae have been observed in NGC 1376:
- SN 1999go (Type II, mag. 15.5) was discovered by the Lick Observatory Supernova Search (LOSS) on 23 December 1999.[5][6] Its luminosity rivaled the brightness of the entire galactic nucleus (as seen from ground-based telescopes) for several weeks.[2]
- SN 2003lo (Type IIn, mag. 17.2) was discovered by Tim Puckett and B. Kerns on 31 December 2003.[7][8]
- SN 2011dx (Type Ia, mag. 16.5) was discoverd by Berto Monard on 27 June 2011.[9][10]
