Maffei 2 is an
intermediate spiral galaxy about
10 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 away
in the
constellation
A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object.
The origins of the e ...
Cassiopeia. Maffei 2 and
Maffei 1 were both discovered by
Paolo Maffei
Paolo Maffei (2 January 1926 – 1 March 2009) was an Italian astrophysicist and science writer.
He was born in Arezzo and was director of the Catania Observatory and an astronomer at Arcetri, Bologna, Asiago and Hamburg. He studied ...
in 1968 from their infrared emission. Maffei 2 lies in the
Zone of Avoidance
The Zone of Avoidance (ZOA, ZoA), or Zone of Galactic Obscuration (ZGO), is the area of the sky that is obscured by the Milky Way.
The Zone of Avoidance was originally called the Zone of Few Nebulae in an 1878 paper by English astronomer Richard ...
and is about 99.5% obscured by the
Milky Way
The Milky Way is the galaxy that includes our Solar System, with the name describing the galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked eye ...
's foreground dust clouds,
and as a result is barely detectable at optical wavelengths. It had been suggested soon after its discovery that Maffei 2 may be a member of the
Local Group
The Local Group is the galaxy group that includes the Milky Way.
It has a total diameter of roughly , and a total mass of the order of .
It consists of two collections of galaxies in a "dumbbell" shape: the Milky Way and its satellites form ...
, but it is now thought to be a member of another nearby group, the
IC 342/Maffei Group
The IC 342/Maffei Group (also known as the IC 342 Group or the Maffei 1 Group) corresponds to one or two galaxy groups close to the Local Group. The member galaxies are mostly concentrated around either IC 342 or Maffei 1, which would be the brig ...
, the
galaxy group that is the closest to the Local Group.
Gallery
Heart and Soul nebulae.jpg, Near the bottom middle of this image, Maffei 2 is nearly obscured by the gas and dust in our own Galaxy
See also
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Dwingeloo 1
Dwingeloo 1 is a barred spiral galaxy about 10 million light-years away from the Earth, in the constellation Cassiopeia. It lies in the Zone of Avoidance and is heavily obscured by the Milky Way. The size and mass of Dwingeloo 1 are comparabl ...
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NGC 1300
NGC 1300 is a barred spiral galaxy located about 61 million light-years away in the constellation Eridanus. The galaxy is about 110,000 light-years across. It is a member of the Eridanus Cluster, a cluster of 200 galaxies.
It was discovered b ...
References
External links
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{{sky, 02, 41, 55.1, +, 59, 36, 15
Intermediate spiral galaxies
IC 342/Maffei Group
Cassiopeia (constellation)
10217
Sharpless objects
Astronomical objects discovered in 1968
UGCA objects