NGC 1 is an intermediate

spiral galaxy Spiral galaxies form a galaxy morphological classification, class of galaxy originally described by Edwin Hubble in his 1936 work ''The Realm of the Nebulae''

of the morphological type Sbc, located in the

constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The first constellati ...

Pegasus Pegasus (; ) is a winged horse in Greek mythology, usually depicted as a white stallion. He was sired by Poseidon, in his role as horse-god, and foaled by the Gorgon Medusa. Pegasus was the brother of Chrysaor, both born from Medusa's blood w ...

. It was discovered on 30 September 1861 by

Heinrich d'Arrest Heinrich Louis d'Arrest (13 August 1822 – 14 June 1875; ) was a Germans, German astronomer, born in Berlin. His name is sometimes given as Heinrich Ludwig d'Arrest. Biography While still a student at the Humboldt University of Berlin ...

Observation history

Heinrich d'Arrest discovered NGC 1 on 30 Sep 1861 while testing the 11-inch f/17.5 Merz refractor of the Copenhagen Observatory. He missed nearby NGC 2. This was d'Arrest's first deep sky discovery, though he was uncertain if his object was identical to h4 or h5 (both of which refer to NGC 16). His descriptions (combination of 4 observations) read "faint, small, round, 20", no concentration. In a straight line connecting two stars 11 and 14 mag." Herman Schultz observed NGC 1 three times in 1866 and 1868 with a 9.6-inch refractor at Uppsala and he also missed fainter NGC 2. The NGC 1 and 2 pair are not physically related. NGC 1 lies at a distance of about with NGC 2 at roughly . The initial observers missed NGC 2, which is much fainter. NGC 1 appears to be quite close to NGC 2, in reality however, the two objects are far apart and unrelated. NGC 2 was first observed as a "companion" of NGC 1 by Lawrence Parsons.

Properties

NGC 1 and NGC 2 from the DESI Legacy Survey

At an estimated 140,000 light-years in diameter, NGC 1 is roughly the same size as our galaxy, the

Milky Way The Milky Way or Milky Way Galaxy is the galaxy that includes the Solar System, with the name describing the #Appearance, galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars in other arms of the galax ...

, which is believed to be approximately 160,000 light-years across. Although its

apparent magnitude Apparent magnitude () is a measure of the Irradiance, brightness of a star, astronomical object or other celestial objects like artificial satellites. Its value depends on its intrinsic luminosity, its distance, and any extinction (astronomy), ...

of 13.65 makes the galaxy appear too faint to see with the naked eye, its absolute magnitude of -22.08 makes NGC 1 two to three times more luminous than our home galaxy. The galaxy is 4.0 Mly away from the 80,000 light-years wide galaxy UGC 69, its nearest major neighbor. NGC 1 has a visual size of 1.6' × 1.2'. Being

classified Classified may refer to: General *Classified information, material that a government body deems to be sensitive *Classified advertising or "classifieds" Music *Classified (rapper) (born 1977), Canadian rapper * The Classified, a 1980s American ro ...

as a SABbc class galaxy using the

Hubble sequence The Hubble sequence is a morphological classification scheme for galaxies published by Edwin Hubble in 1926. It is often colloquially known as the Hubble tuning-fork diagram because the shape in which it is traditionally represented resembles a ...

and the De Vaucouleurs system as an extension, NGC 1 is a spiral galaxy with the presence of a weak nuclear bar and loosely wound arms. Although the central galaxy is only about 90,000 light-years across, a large, diffuse arm extends eastwards from it, possibly from a past merger. Based on its

redshift In physics, a redshift is an increase in the wavelength, and corresponding decrease in the frequency and photon energy, of electromagnetic radiation (such as light). The opposite change, a decrease in wavelength and increase in frequency and e ...

of approximately 0.015177 and thus

recessional velocity Recessional velocity is the rate at which an extragalactic astronomical object recedes (becomes more distant) from an observer as a result of the expansion of the universe. It can be measured by observing the wavelength shifts of spectral lines e ...

of 4450 km/s, the distance of the galaxy from the Solar System can be calculated using

Hubble's law Hubble's law, also known as the Hubble–Lemaître law, is the observation in physical cosmology that galaxies are moving away from Earth at speeds proportional to their distance. In other words, the farther a galaxy is from the Earth, the faste ...

. Using current observation data, this places the galaxy at approximately 210 to 215 million light-years from Earth, which is in good agreement with redshift-independent distance estimates of 175 to 245 million light years. An opposing measurement of the galaxy's recessional velocity of 2215 km/s would place the galaxy only about 100 million light-years away. However, this is regarded unlikely by most astronomers and believed to be a misattributed value for a different galaxy.

Listing in astronomical catalogues

After being logged as the first object in the General Catalogue, the galaxy is also the first object to be listed in the catalogue's successor, the

New General Catalogue The ''New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars'' (abbreviated NGC) is an astronomical catalogue of deep-sky objects compiled by John Louis Emil Dreyer in 1888. The NGC contains 7,840 objects, including galaxy, galaxies, star cluste ...

. With an original

right ascension Right ascension (abbreviated RA; symbol ) is the angular distance of a particular point measured eastward along the celestial equator from the Sun at the equinox (celestial coordinates), March equinox to the (hour circle of the) point in questio ...

of at the time of the catalog's compilation (

epoch In chronology and periodization, an epoch or reference epoch is an instant in time chosen as the origin of a particular calendar era. The "epoch" serves as a reference point from which time is measured. The moment of epoch is usually decided b ...

1860), this object had the lowest right ascension of all the objects in the catalog, making it the first listing in the New General Catalogue as the objects were arranged by right ascension. Since then, the coordinates have shifted, and this object no longer has the lowest right ascension of all the NGC objects.

NGC 23 group

NGC 1 is part of the NGC 23

group A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together. Groups of people * Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity * Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic iden ...

(also known as LGG 2) that includes at least 6 other galaxies: NGC 23,

NGC 26 NGC 26 is a spiral galaxy in the Pegasus constellation. It was discovered on 14 September 1865 by Heinrich Louis d'Arrest. NGC 23 group NGC 26 is part of the NGC 23 group A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, ...

, UGC 69, UGC 79, UGC 110, and UGC 127.

References

External links