Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cetus (Cet)  ·  Contains:  NGC 1073
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NGC 1073, Gary Imm
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NGC 1073

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NGC 1073, Gary Imm
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NGC 1073

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Description

This object is a face-on barred spiral galaxy located 50 million light years away in the constellation of Cetus at a declination of +1 degree. The galaxy width in our apparent view is 5 arc-minutes which corresponds to a true diameter of 80,000 light years.

This galaxy is fascinating to me. The long bar of the core is unusually detailed, revealing an asymmetric inner oval shape and a long star cluster on the right side. The arms are asymmetric as well, and in fact the right side has 2 arms connected to the bar. Many bright blue star clusters are scattered throughout the outer regions. The core and arms sort of remind me of a left-handed "mark of Zorro" ( I am left-handed so I can say that).

The two bright blue dots on the outer right edge of the disk, one at 3 o'clock and one at 4 o'clock, are quasars which are around 8 billion light years away. Also interesting, at the upper left edge of the disk, is the orange colored galaxy which appears to have two cores.

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