NGC 2915

NGC 2915 is a blue dwarf galaxy located 12 million light-years away in the southern constellation Chamaeleon, right on the edge of the Local Group. The optical galaxy corresponds to the core of a much larger spiral galaxy traced by radio observation of neutral hydrogen.

NGC 2915
NGC 2915 as observed with the Spitzer Space Telescope (SST) as part of the SINGS Survey. The blue colors represent the 3.6 micrometre emission from stars. The green and red colors represent the 5.8 and 8.0 micrometre emission from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
Credit:SINGS/SST/NASA.
Observation data (J2000 epoch)
ConstellationChamaeleon
Right ascension09h 26m 11.5s[1]
Declination−76° 37′ 35″[1]
Redshift468 ± 3 km/s[1]
Distance12.3 Mly (3.78 Mpc)[2]
Apparent magnitude (V)13.3[1]
Characteristics
TypeI0[1]
Apparent size (V)1′.9 × 1′.0[1]
Other designations
PGC 26761[1]

The galaxy has a short central bar, much like the Milky Way and very extended spiral arms.

The reason for the spiral arms and majority of the galaxy's disk to be still neutral hydrogen (as opposed to have formed stars) is not well understood but is thought to be related to the galaxy's isolation, in that it has no nearby satellite galaxies and no nearby major galaxies to force star formation.

Notes
  1. "NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database". Results for NGC 2915. Retrieved 2007-03-19.
  2. I. D. Karachentsev; V. E. Karachentseva; W. K. Huchtmeier; D. I. Markarov (2004). "A Catalog of Neighboring Galaxies". Astronomical Journal. 127 (4): 2031–2068. Bibcode:2004AJ....127.2031K. doi:10.1086/382905.

References
  • Media related to NGC 2915 at Wikimedia Commons


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