Seyfert's Sextet
Template:Short description Template:Galaxy cluster Seyfert's Sextet is a group of galaxies about 190 million light-years away<ref>Template:Cite web </ref> in the constellation Serpens. The group appears to contain six members, but one of the galaxies, NGC 6027d, is a background object (700 million light years behind the group) and another "galaxy," NGC 6027e, is actually a part of the tail from galaxy NGC 6027. The gravitational interaction among these galaxies should continue for hundreds of millions of years. Ultimately, the galaxies will merge to form a single giant elliptical galaxy.
Discovery
[edit]French astronomer Édouard Stephan discovered NGC 6027 on 20 March 1882, but he was unable to resolve the individual galaxies in the group.<ref name="selig">Template:Cite web</ref> The group members were discovered by Carl Keenan Seyfert using photographic plates made at the Barnard Observatory of Vanderbilt University. When these results were first published in 1951, this group was the most compact group ever identified.<ref name="bajajaetal1984">Template:Cite journal</ref>
Members
[edit]| Name | Type | Distance from Sun (million ly) |
Magnitude |
|---|---|---|---|
| NGC 6027 | S0 pec. | ~190 | +14.7 |
| NGC 6027a | Sa pec. | ~190 | +15.4 |
| NGC 6027b | S0 pec. | ~190 | +15.4 |
| NGC 6027c | SB(S)c | ~190 | +16 |
| NGC 6027d | SB(S)bc pec. | ~877<ref name="ngc6027d">Template:Cite web</ref> | +15.6 |
| NGC 6027e | Tidal Tail. | ~190 | +16.5 |
See also
[edit]- Wild's Triplet
- Zwicky's Triplet
- Robert's Quartet
- Stephan's Quintet and NGC 7331 Group (also known as the Deer Lick Group); about half a degree northeast of Stephan's Quintet
- Copeland Septet