NGC 1300

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**NGC 1300**
Observation data: J2000 epoch
A Hubble Space Telescope (HST) image of NGC 1300. Credit: HST/NASA/ESA.
Constellation:	Eridanus
Right ascension:	03^h 19^m 41.1^s^[1]
Declination:	-19° 24′ 41″^[1]
Redshift:	1577 ± 4 km/s^[1]
Distance:	69 Mly^{[citation needed]}
Type:	(R')SB(s)bc^[1]
Apparent dimensions (V):	6′.2 × 4′.1^[1]
Apparent magnitude (V):	11.4^[1]
Notable features:
Other designations
MCG-03-09-018,^[1] ESO 547 -G 31,^[1] PGC 12412^[1]
See also: Galaxy, List of galaxies

NGC 1300 is a barred spiral galaxy about 69 million light-years away in the constellation Eridanus and is part of the Eridanus cluster^{[citation needed]}. It was discovered by John Frederick William Herschel in 1835^{[citation needed]}.

1 Hubble's look
2 See also
3 External links
4 References

[edit] Hubble's look

In 2005 the Hubble Space Telescope took a look at NGC 1300. It's resolution, a myriad of fine details, some of which have never before been seen, is seen throughout the galaxy's arms, disk, bulge, and nucleus. Blue and red supergiant stars, star clusters, and star-forming regions are well resolved across the spiral arms, and dust lanes trace out fine structures in the disk and bar. Numerous more distant galaxies are visible in the background, and are seen even through the densest regions of NGC 1300.

In the core of the larger spiral structure of NGC 1300, the nucleus shows its own extraordinary and distinct "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, however, indicating either that there is no black hole, or that it is not accreting matter. The galaxy is roughly 150,000 light-years in diameter.