Q49671

Also known as UGC 4, New General Catalogue 45

spiral galaxy in the constellation Cetus

Key facts

Constellation: Cetus
Right ascension: 00 14 03.989
Declination: –23 ° 10 ′ 55.53 ″
Heliocentric radial velocity: 466 km/s
Distance: 21.7 Mly (6.64 Mpc )
Apparent magnitude v: 10.73 ± 0.03
Apparent magnitude b: 11.21 ± 0.03
Type: SA(s)dm
Mass light ratio: M ☉ / L ☉
Size: ~80,800 ly (24.76 kpc )
Apparent size v: 8.5′ × 5.9′

via Wikipedia infobox

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Encyclopedic overview

NGC 45 is a low surface brightness spiral galaxy in the equatorial constellation of Cetus. It was discovered by the English astronomer John Herschel on 11 November 1835. The galaxy is located at a distance of 22 million light years and is receding with a heliocentric radial velocity of 466 km/s. It is located in the vicinity of the Sculptor Group, but is most likely a background galaxy.

The morphological class of NGC 45 is SA(s)dm, indicating this is a spiral galaxy with no prominent inner bar (SA) or ring (s) feature. There is no central bulge to speak of. The galactic plane is inclined at an angle of 55°±5° to the line of sight from the Earth, with the major axis of the elliptical profile being aligned along a position angle of 145°±5°. Star formation is proceeding at a modest rate of ~0.20 M☉·yr.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Q49671” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.