Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Cetus (Cet)  ·  Contains:  NGC 1022
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NGC 1022, Gary Imm
NGC 1022, Gary Imm

NGC 1022

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NGC 1022, Gary Imm
NGC 1022, Gary Imm

NGC 1022

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Description

This Astrobin Debut Object is a small face-on barred spiral galaxy located 60 million light years away in the constellation of Cetus at a declination of -7 degrees.  It is a magnitude 11.3 galaxy which spans 2 arc-minutes in our apparent view.  This corresponds to a small diameter of 40,000 light years.

This galaxy has a unique and beautiful structure.  The disk is inclined about 20 degrees to our line of sight.  The most striking feature is the asymmetric dust pattern on the upper right side of the inner disk.  It is odd how this dust pattern is not centered on the core.

Other odd features are the wide bar and the mid-region pseudo-ring.  A past merger would be my best guess to explain the structure of this interesting galaxy.

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