Galaxy NGC 1569 (Arp 210)

NGC 1569 (Arp 210)
NGC 1569 (Arp 210): Galaxy in Camelopardalis; 500 mm Cassegrain 3625 mm f/7.2; SBIG STL11K; 310-70-70-70 min LRGB; Bernese Highlands; © 2020 Radek Chromik

History

This galaxy was discovered by William Herschel on 4 November 1788 using his 18.7 inch reflecting telescope. He cataloged it as II 768 (class II = faint nebulae) and noted: «Pretty bright, small, little extended, bright nucleus, just south of pretty bright star.» [464]

In 1966 Halton Arp published his «Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies», where he ordered galaxies into groups based on purely morphological criteria. The galaxy NGC 1569 is listed as Arp 210 in the group #209-214 «galaxies with irregularities, absorption and resolution». He remarked: «Much absorption, resolution into stars.» [199]

Physical Properties

NGC 1569 is an irregular dwarf galaxy with a very high star birth activity, 100 times faster than observed in our own Milky Way Galaxy, and lasted almost continuous for the past 100 million years.

The core is around 5000 light years wide and a grouping of three giant star clusters, each containing more than a million stars. They reside in a large, central cavity, where the gas already has been blown out by the multitude of massive, young stars that already exploded as supernovae. These explosions also triggered a violent flow of gas and particles, which formed giant gaseous structures.

NGC 1569 (Arp 210)
NGC 1569 (Arp 210): Image taken with Hubble Space Telescope. © 2008 NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), and A. Aloisi (STScI/ESA) [584]

The biggest and brightest objects surrounding the core are stars scattered throughout our Milky Way Galaxy. In contrast, the thousands of tiny white dots in the HST image are stars in the halo of NGC 1569. The galaxy lies in a distance of about 11 million light-years, in the middle of a group of about 10 galaxies centered on the spiral galaxy IC 342. Gravitational interactions among the group's galaxies may be compressing gas in NGC 1569 and igniting the star-birthing frenzy. [584]

Revised+Historic NGC/IC Version 22/9, © 2022 Dr. Wolfgang Steinicke [277]
Designation NGC 1569
Type Gx (IBm)
Right Ascension (J2000.0) 04h 30m 49.1s
Declination (J2000.0) +64° 50' 53"
Diameter 3.7 × 1.8 arcmin
Photographic (blue) magnitude 11.9 mag
Visual magnitude 11.0 mag
Surface brightness 12.9 mag·arcmin-2
Position Angle 120°
Redshift (z) -0.000347
Metric Distance 2.900 Mpc
Dreyer Description pB, S, lE, bNM, * 9.5 n 1'
Identification, Remarks WH II 768; GC 847; UGC 3056; MCG 11-6-1; CGCG 306-1; Arp 210; 7ZW 16; IRAS 04260+6444

Finder Chart

The galaxy NGC 1569 lies in the constellation Camelopardalis. The best time to observe it is from September to March, when the circumpolar constellation is at its highest in the sky.

Finder Chart Galaxy NGC 1569 (Arp 210)
Galaxy NGC 1569 (Arp 210) in constellation Camelopardalis. Charts created using SkySafari 6 Pro and STScI Digitized Sky Survey. Limiting magnitudes: Constellation chart ~6.5 mag, DSS2 close-ups ~20 mag. [149, 160]

Objects Within a Radius of 15°

References