Right ascension 03 19 41.1 Distance 61.3 Mly (18.8 Mpc) Magnitude 11.4 | Declination −19° 24′ 41″ Type (R')SB(s)bc Apparent magnitude (V) 11.4 | |
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Redshift 0.005260 (1577 ± 4 km/s) Size 110,000 light years in diameter Constellation Eridanus in Chinese astronomy Similar NGC 1232, NGC 1365, NGC 1309, NGC 1672, NGC 1316 | ||
Zoom into ngc 1300
NGC 1300 is a barred spiral galaxy about 61 million light-years away in the constellation Eridanus. The galaxy is about 110,000 light-years across (about 2/3 the size of the Milky Way). It is a member of the Eridanus Cluster, a cluster of 200 galaxies. It was discovered by John Herschel in 1835.
In the core of the larger spiral structure of NGC 1300, the nucleus shows a "grand-design" spiral structure that is about 3,300 light-years long. Only galaxies with large-scale bars appear to have these grand-design inner disks — a spiral within a spiral. Models suggest that the gas in a bar can be funneled inwards, and then spiral into the center through the grand-design disk, where it can potentially fuel a central black hole. NGC 1300 is not known to have an active nucleus, indicating that its central black hole is not accreting matter.