NGC 2008
Spiral galaxy in the constellation Pictor
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
NGC 2008 is a distant spiral galaxy located in the constellation Pictor. Its speed relative to the cosmic microwave background is 10,367 ± 11 km/s, which corresponds to a Hubble distance of 153 ± 11 Mpc (~499 million ly).[1] NGC 2008 was discovered by British astronomer John Herschel in 1834.[2] The luminosity class of NGC 2008 is III[1] with an apparent magnitude of 13.2.[3]
| NGC 2008 | |
|---|---|
 NGC 2008 imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope | |
| Observation data (J2000 epoch) | |
| Constellation | Pictor |
| Right ascension | 05h 35m 03s |
| Declination | -50° 58′ 00″ |
| Redshift | 0.034387 |
| Heliocentric radial velocity | 10,309 km/s |
| Distance | 499 Mly (152.91 Mpc) |
| Apparent magnitude (B) | 14.64 |
| Surface brightness | 23.27 mag/arcsec2 |
| Characteristics | |
| Type | Sc |
| Size | 225,000 ly (estimated 68.91 kpc) |
| Apparent size (V) | 1.5' x 0.7' |
| Other designations | |
| PGC 17480, ESO 204-20, AM 0533-505 | |
NGC 2008 is classified as a type Sc galaxy with a small central budge structure and open spiral arms.[4][5][6]
To date, four non-redshift measurements yield a distance of 135.750 ± 10.521 Mpc (~443 million ly), which is within the Hubble distance range. Note, however, that it is with the average value of independent measurements, when they exist, that the NASA/IPAC database[3] calculates the diameter of a galaxy and that consequently the diameter of NGC 2008 could be approximately 77 kpc (~253,000 ly) if we used the Hubble distance to calculate it.[7]
According to Soares and his colleagues, NGC 2007 and NGC 2008 form a pair of galaxies. However, the Hubble distance of NGC 2007 is 67.57 ± 4.73 Mpc (~220 million ly). These two galaxies therefore form a purely optical pair.[2][8]