Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Virgo (Vir)  ·  Contains:  NGC 5068  ·  NGC 5084
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NGC5068 and NGC5084: a stunning southern pair, Charles Bracken
NGC5068 and NGC5084: a stunning southern pair
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Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
NGC5068 and NGC5084: a stunning southern pair, Charles Bracken
NGC5068 and NGC5084: a stunning southern pair
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NGC5068 and NGC5084 were discovered by William Herschel on the same night in 1785.  (It's a shame I missed posting this on what would have been their discovery "birthday" of March 10th.).  This area of southern Virgo is stuffed with galaxies, but these are two the finest in this area. NGC5068 is the face-on barred spiral, and it is about 20 million light years away.  NGC5084 is an enormous edge-on lenticular S0 that is about 58 million light years away. The fact that it is twice as big in apparent size, yet also twice as distant, shows what a giant it is. Per Carignan, et al NGC5068 and NGC5084 were discovered by William Herschel on the same night in 1785.  (It's a shame I missed posting this on what would have been their discovery "birthday" of March 10th.).  This area of southern Virgo is stuffed with galaxies, but these are two the finest in this area. NGC5068 is the face-on barred spiral, and it is about 20 million light years away.  NGC5084 is an enormous edge-on lenticular S0 that is about 58 million light years away. The fact that it is twice as big in apparent size, yet also twice as distant, shows what a giant it is. Per Carignan, et al [AJ 113:1585-90 1997), at least eight of the galaxies around it are satellites, and it appears to have absorbed one or more satellites in the past. There appears to be some faint galactic cirrus running diagonally across the upper left corner, right over NGC5068.

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NGC5068 and NGC5084: a stunning southern pair, Charles Bracken