Seyfert's Sextet

Seyfert's Sextet
A Hubble Space Telescope (HST) image of Seyfert's Sextet.
Credit: HST/NASA/ESA.
Observation data (Epoch J2000)
Constellation(s)Serpens
Right ascension15h 59m 11.9s[1]
Declination+20° 45′ 31″[1]
Brightest memberNGC 6027
Number of galaxies4[1]
Other designations
Serpens Sextet, HCG 79, UGC 10116,
VV 115, VII Zw 631[1]

Seyfert's Sextet is a group of galaxies about 190 million light-years away[2] in the constellation Serpens. The group appears to contain six members, but one of the galaxies, NGC 6027d, is a background object (700 million light years behind the group) and another "galaxy," NGC 6027e, is actually a part of the tail from galaxy NGC 6027. The gravitational interaction among these galaxies should continue for hundreds of millions of years. Ultimately, the galaxies will merge to form a single giant elliptical galaxy.

Discovery

French astronomer Édouard Stephan discovered NGC 6027 on 20 March 1882, but he was unable to resolve the individual galaxies in the group.[3] The group members were discovered by Carl Keenan Seyfert using photographic plates made at the Barnard Observatory of Vanderbilt University. When these results were first published in 1951, this group was the most compact group ever identified.[4]

Members

Members of Seyfert's Sextet
Name Type Distance from Sun
(million ly) 		Magnitude
NGC 6027 S0 pec. ~190 +14.7
NGC 6027a Sa pec. ~190 +15.4
NGC 6027b S0 pec. ~190 +15.4
NGC 6027c SB(S)c ~190 +16
NGC 6027d SB(S)bc pec. ~877[5] +15.6
NGC 6027e Tidal Tail. ~190 +16.5

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d "NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database". Results for HCG 79. Retrieved 2006-10-29.
  2. ^ "HubbleSite - NewsCenter - Hubble Watches Galaxies Engage in Dance of Destruction (12/12/2002) - Release Images". hubblesite.org. Archived from the original on 2007-01-10.
  3. ^ Seligman, Courtney. "New General Catalogue Objects: NGC 6027". Celestial Atlas. Retrieved 28 August 2024.
  4. ^ C. K. Seyfert (1951). "A Dense Group of Galaxies in Serpens". Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. 371 (371): 72–75. Bibcode:1951PASP...63...72S. doi:10.1086/126319.
  5. ^ "NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database". Results for NGC 6027d. Retrieved 2013-04-02.