NGC 2608 | |
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NGC 2608 (2MASS near-infrared) |
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Observation data (J2000 epoch) | |
Constellation | Cancer |
Right ascension | 08h 35m 17.3s [1] |
Declination | +28° 28′ 24″ [1] |
Redshift | 0.007122 (2135 +/-8 km/sec) [1] |
Distance | 93.0 Mly (28.5 Mpc) [2] |
Type | SB(s)b [1] |
Apparent dimensions (V) | 2.3 x 1.4 arcmin [1] |
Apparent magnitude (V) | 13.01 [1] |
Other designations | |
Arp 012, PGC 024111 | |
See also: Galaxy, List of galaxies |
NGC 2608 (also known as Arp 12) is a barred spiral galaxy located 93 million light-years away in the constellation Cancer (the Crab). It is 62,000 light-years across; about 60% of the width of the Milky Way. It is considered a grand design spiral galaxy and is classified as SB(s)b, meaning that the galaxy's arms wind moderately (neither tightly nor loosely) around the prominent central bar. It was classified by Halton Arp (1927-) under "galaxies with split arms" in his 1966 Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies who noted that the "nucleus may be double or superposed star."[3] NGC 2608 is now considered to be a pair of interacting galaxies.[4]