UGC 1281
Dwarf galaxy in the constellation Triangulum
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
UGC 1281 is a slightly warped edge on dwarf galaxy located 18 million light years from Earth in the constellation of Triangulum.[2] It has a low surface brightness.[3] The first known reference to this galaxy comes from Part 2 of the Morphological Catalogue of Galaxies, published in 1964, where it is listed as MCG +05-05-014.
| UGC 1281 | |
|---|---|
UGC 1281 imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope. The bright patch to the lower left is companion galaxy PGC 6700. | |
| Observation data (J2000 epoch) | |
| Constellation | Triangulum |
| Right ascension | 01h 49m 31.6135s[1] |
| Declination | +32° 35′ 19.525″[1] |
| Redshift | 0.000520[1] |
| Heliocentric radial velocity | 156 ± 1 km/s[1] |
| Distance | 17.86 ± 0.73 Mly (5.476 ± 0.225 Mpc)[1] |
| Characteristics | |
| Type | Sdm[1] |
| Size | ~24,400 ly (7.49 kpc) (estimated)[1] |
| Other designations | |
| MCG +05-05-014, PGC 6699, CGCG 503-026 | |
There have been claims that UGC 1281 has a red stellar thick disk. However this claim is at odds with the low surface brightness of the galaxy.[4]
Star formation
The current star formation rate of the UGC 1281 galaxy is 0.006 solar masses per year, for comparison, the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) has a star formation rate of 0.046 solar masses per year. Because UGC 1281 has such a low rate of star formation, it is surprising that the galaxy is able to form bright diffuse ionized structures.
The galaxy had a period of enhanced star formation within the last 60 million years forming many blue supergiant stars.[4]
