NGC 147 (also known as DDO3 or Caldwell 17) is a
dwarf spheroidal galaxy
A dwarf spheroidal galaxy (dSph) is a term in astronomy applied to small, low-luminosity galaxies with very little dust and an older stellar population. They are found in the Local Group as companions to the Milky Way and as systems that are c ...
about 2.58
Mly away 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 ...
Cassiopeia
Cassiopeia or Cassiopea may refer to:
Greek mythology
* Cassiopeia (mother of Andromeda), queen of Aethiopia and mother of Andromeda
* Cassiopeia (wife of Phoenix), wife of Phoenix, king of Phoenicia
* Cassiopeia, wife of Epaphus, king of Egy ...
. NGC 147 is a member of the
Local Group of galaxies and a
satellite galaxy
A satellite galaxy is a smaller companion galaxy that travels on bound orbits within the gravitational potential of a more massive and Luminosity, luminous host galaxy (also known as the primary galaxy). Satellite galaxies and their constituents ...
of the
Andromeda Galaxy
The Andromeda Galaxy is a barred spiral galaxy and is the nearest major galaxy to the Milky Way. It was originally named the Andromeda Nebula and is cataloged as Messier 31, M31, and NGC 224. Andromeda has a Galaxy#Isophotal diameter, D25 isop ...
(M31). It forms a physical pair with the nearby galaxy
NGC 185
NGC 185 (also known as Caldwell 18) is a dwarf spheroidal galaxy located 2.08 million light-years from Earth, appearing in the constellation Cassiopeia. It is a member of the Local Group, and is a satellite of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31). NGC 18 ...
,
another remote satellite of M31. It was discovered by
John Herschel
Sir John Frederick William Herschel, 1st Baronet (; 7 March 1792 – 11 May 1871) was an English polymath active as a mathematician, astronomer, chemist, inventor and experimental photographer who invented the blueprint and did botanical work. ...
in September 1829. Visually it is both fainter and slightly larger than NGC 185 (and therefore has a considerably lower surface brightness). This means that NGC 147 is more difficult to see than NGC 185, which is visible in small
telescope
A telescope is a device used to observe distant objects by their emission, Absorption (electromagnetic radiation), absorption, or Reflection (physics), reflection of electromagnetic radiation. Originally, it was an optical instrument using len ...
s. In the ''Webb Society Deep-Sky Observer's Handbook'',
the visual appearance of NGC 147 is described as follows:
Large, quite faint, irregularly round; it brightens in the middle to a stellar nucleus.
The membership of NGC 147 in the Local Group was confirmed by
Walter Baade in 1944 when he was able to resolve the galaxy into individual stars with the telescope at
Mount Wilson near
Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
.
Characteristics
A survey of the brightest
asymptotic giant branch
The asymptotic giant branch (AGB) is a region of the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram populated by evolved cool luminous stars. This is a period of stellar evolution undertaken by all low- to intermediate-mass stars (about 0.5 to 8 solar masses) lat ...
(AGB) stars in the area of radius 2 from the center of NGC 147 shows that the last significant star-forming activity in NGC 147 occurred around 3 Gyr ago.
NGC 147 contains a large population of older stars which show a spread in
metallicity
In astronomy, metallicity is the Abundance of the chemical elements, abundance of Chemical element, elements present in an object that are heavier than hydrogen and helium. Most of the normal currently detectable (i.e. non-Dark matter, dark) matt ...
and age. The metallicity spread suggests that NGC 147 has had chemical enrichment. However,
H I has not been observed and the
interstellar medium
The interstellar medium (ISM) is the matter and radiation that exists in the outer space, space between the star systems in a galaxy. This matter includes gas in ionic, atomic, and molecular form, as well as cosmic dust, dust and cosmic rays. It f ...
(ISM) mass upper limit is much lower than expected had the material which is emitted from evolving stars been kept in the galaxy. This implies depletion of the ISM.
Distance measurements
At least two techniques have been used to measure distances to NGC 147. The surface brightness fluctuations distance measurement technique estimates distances to spiral galaxies based on the graininess of the appearance of their bulges. The distance measured to NGC 147 using this technique is 2.67 ± 0.18
Mly (870 ± 60
kpc).
However, NGC 147 is close enough that the
tip of the red giant branch (TRGB) method may be used to estimate its distance. The estimated distance to NGC 147 using this technique is 2.21 ± 0.09 Mly (680 ± 30 kpc).
Averaged together, these distance measurements give a distance estimate of ().
See also
*
Andromeda's satellite galaxies
Notes
- average(870 ± 60, 680 ± 30) = ((870 + 680) / 2) ± ((602 + 302)0.5 / 2) = 780 ± 30
References
External links
SEDS – NGC 147*
{{DEFAULTSORT:NGC 0147
Dwarf spheroidal galaxies
Local Group
Andromeda Subgroup
Cassiopeia (constellation)
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00326
002004
017b
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