Seyfert's Sextet

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**Seyfert's Sextet**
Observation data (Epoch J2000)
Seyfert's Sextet
Constellation(s):	Serpens Caput
Right ascension:	15^h 59^m 11.9^s^[1]
Declination:	+20° 45′ 31″^[1]
Number of galaxies:	4^[1]
Brightest member:	NGC 6027
Other designations
Serpens Sextet, HCG 79, UGC 10116, VV 115, VII Zw 631^[1]
See also: Galaxy groups and clusters, List of galaxy clusters

Seyfert's Sextet is a group of galaxies about 190 million light-years away[1] in the constellation Serpens Caput. The group appears to contain six members, but one of the galaxies is a background object and another "galaxy" is actually a separated part of one of the other galaxies. 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.

1 Discovery
2 Members
3 See also
4 External links
5 References

[edit] Discovery

The group was 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.^[2]

[edit] Members

**Members of Seyfert's Sextet**
Name	Type	Distance from Sun (million ly)	Magnitude
NGC 6027	S0 pec.	~190	+14.7
NGC 6027A	S0 pec.	~190	+15.4
NGC 6027B	SAa pec.	~190	+15.4
NGC 6027C	SB(S)c	~190	+16
NGC 6027D	SB(S)bc pec.	~190	+15.6
NGC 6027E	SB0 pec.	~190	+16.5

[edit] See also

Robert's Quartet - another compact group
Stephan's Quintet - a well-known compact group

[edit] External links

[edit] References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database. Results for HCG 79. Retrieved on 2006-10-29.
^ C. K. Seyfert (1951). "A Dense Group of Galaxies in Serpens". Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 371: 72-75.