IC 5052 is a barred spiral galaxy located in the constellation Pavo. It is located at a distance of circa 25 million

light year A light-year, alternatively spelled light year, is a large unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equivalent to about 9.46 trillion kilometers (), or 5.88 trillion miles ().One trillion here is taken to be 1012 ...

s from Earth, which, given its apparent dimensions, means that IC 5052 is about 40,000 light years across. It was discovered by

DeLisle Stewart DeLisle Stewart (March 16, 1870 – February 2, 1941) was an American astronomer. In 1896 he became a staff member of Harvard College Observatory, and from 1898 to 1901 he worked at that observatory's station at Arequipa, Peru, where he took the ...

on August 23, 1900. IC 5052 is viewed edge-on. When spiral galaxies are viewed from this angle, it is very difficult to fully understand their properties and how they are arranged. IC 5052 is actually a barred spiral galaxy – its spiral arms do not begin from the centre point but are instead attached to either end of a straight "bar" of stars that cuts through the galaxy's middle. The profile of the galaxy is irregular, with the northwest side having a much higher surface brightness than the southeast side. Also, one half of the

galactic disk A galactic disc (or galactic disk) is a component of disc galaxies, such as spiral galaxies and lenticular galaxies. Galactic discs consist of a stellar component (composed of most of the galaxy's stars) and a gaseous component (mostly composed ...

appears thicker that the other. A number of irregular dust lanes are observed across the disk, but none is prominent. No

bulge __NOTOC__ Bulge may refer to: Astronomy and geography *Bulge (astronomy), a tightly packed group of stars at the center of a spiral galaxy *Equatorial bulge, a bulge around the equator of a planet due to rotation *Tharsis bulge, vast volcanic pla ...

is observed. A population of older stars has been detected off the center of the disk, as well as a stream-like structure, that could indicate a galaxy merger took place in the recent past. The galaxy is close enough that its stars can be resolved with large telescopes, with the brightest ones having an

apparent magnitude Apparent magnitude () is a measure of the brightness of a star or other astronomical object observed from Earth. An object's apparent magnitude depends on its intrinsic luminosity, its distance from Earth, and any extinction of the object's li ...

of 21. The younger and hotter of the stars lie within

HII region An H II region or HII region is a region of interstellar atomic hydrogen that is ionized. It is typically in a molecular cloud of partially ionized gas in which star formation has recently taken place, with a size ranging from one to hundreds ...

s, the largest of which have apparent diameters of at least 2 arcseconds.Sandage, A., Bedke, J. (1994), ''The Carnegie Atlas of Galaxies. Volume I'', Carnegie Institution of Washington These pockets of extremely hot newborn stars are visible across the galaxy's length as bursts of pale blue light, partially blocked out by weaving lanes of darker gas and dust. IC 5052 is characterised as an isolated galaxy, which doesn't belong to a group of galaxies. The nearest large galaxy to IC 5052 is

NGC 6744 __NOTOC__ NGC 6744 (also known as Caldwell 101) is an intermediate spiral galaxy about 30 million light-years away in the constellation Pavo (Peacock). It is considered as a Milky Way mimic in the immediate vicinity, displaying flocculent (fluff ...

, which is characterised as the main disturber of IC 5052.

References

External links

IC 5052 on SIMBAD
Barred spiral galaxies Pavo (constellation) 5052 65603 Astronomical objects discovered in 1900 Discoveries by DeLisle Stewart {{Pavo (constellation)