Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Aries (Ari)  ·  Contains:  NGC 972
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NGC 972, Gary Imm
NGC 972, Gary Imm

NGC 972

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
NGC 972, Gary Imm
NGC 972, Gary Imm

NGC 972

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Description

This Astrobin Debut Object is a spiral galaxy located 50 million light years away in the constellation of Aries at a declination of +29 degrees.  It is a fairly bright magnitude 13.6 galaxy and it spans 3.5 arc-minutes in our apparent view, which corresponds to a diameter of 60,000 light years.  Our view of this galaxy is about 25 degrees from edge-on.

The dust pattern of the inner disk is fascinating.  Wide swaths of dark dust lanes flow like ribbons throughout the bright inner star field.  The upper half of this inner disk has blue regions of star formation.  There is no arm structure here – the outer disk is diffuse.  The outer disk is much fainter at the top than at the bottom.

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