Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Pegasus (Peg)  ·  Contains:  NGC 7137
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NGC 7137, Gary Imm
NGC 7137, Gary Imm

NGC 7137

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NGC 7137, Gary Imm
NGC 7137, Gary Imm

NGC 7137

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Description

This object is a rarely imaged tiny face-on spiral galaxy located 90 million light years away in the constellation of Pegasus at a declination of +22 degrees. This galaxy spans 1 arc-minute in our apparent view, which corresponds to a width of about 30,000 light years.

The disk structure is interesting in that it looks like this galaxy has 3 arms. Arp has a 3 arm category in his catalog but this one did not make it for some reason. Studies have shown that 3 arms can arise under the influence of a rotating barred core, but this galaxy does not appear to have a barred core.

The arms have the segmented structure that is characteristic of Vorontsov-Velyaminov rows. Many faint HII regions and star clusters are visible in the disk.

I find it extremely unusual that a galaxy this small (in terms of light years) has such detailed structure. It would be more logical if this galaxy were actually twice as far away as studies have indicated. But several studies have given consistent estimates, so I assume that my view that there is a relationship between size and structure is wrong.

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