Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Centaurus (Cen)  ·  Contains:  NGC 5102  ·  PGC 46705
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NGC 5102, Gary Imm
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NGC 5102

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NGC 5102, Gary Imm
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NGC 5102

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Description

This object is a lenticular galaxy located only 12 million light years away in the constellation of Centaurus at a declination of -37 degrees. This 9.7 magnitude galaxy has a surface brightness of 12.6 It spans 8 arc-minutes in our apparent view, which corresponds to an actual diameter of 30,000 light years. We see the galaxy about 20 degrees from edge-on.

Lenticular galaxies are generally not spectacular, just a short step up from elliptical galaxies. But this one is interesting because it lies only 20 arc-minutes from the bright blue 3rd magnitude star Iota Centauri. The blue glow from this bright star is seen in the lower right corner of the image. Some have nicknamed this galaxy Iota’s Ghost because it lies in the glare of that bright star.

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