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EntityQ1118133· pop 30· linked from 541 articles

interacting galaxy

Key facts

Constellation
Ursa Major
Right ascension
13 38 17.5
Declination
+48 ° 16 ′ 37 ″
Redshift
0.027 863 ± 0.000 043
Heliocentric radial velocity
8353 ± 13 km/s
Galactocentric velocity
8447 ± 13 km/s
Distance
420 Mly (129 Mpc )
Type
SAB(nc)P
Apparent size v
1.20 ′ × 1.1 ′

via Wikipedia infobox

~1 min read

Encyclopedic overview

NGC 5256 is an object that contains two disc galaxies, that are colliding into each other. It is located in the constellation Ursa Major, and was discovered by William Herschel on 12 May 1787. The two nuclei of the galaxies are separated by about 13,000 light-years. The southwest and northeast nuclei have masses of 7×10 M☉ and 10×10 M☉, assuming they orbit around a common center of mass. NGC 5256 is located at about 420 million light-years away from the Earth.

NGC 5256 is also known as Markarian 266 and is one of the Markarian galaxies, included in the Markarian Survey due to its high amount of ultraviolet emission. However, it is also a luminous infrared galaxy (LIRG); most of its energy is emitted in the infrared range.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Q1118133” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.