NGC 2 is a

spiral galaxy Spiral galaxies form a class of galaxy originally described by Edwin Hubble in his 1936 work ''The Realm of the Nebulae''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 ...

Pegasus Pegasus ( grc-gre, Πήγασος, Pḗgasos; la, Pegasus, Pegasos) is one of the best known creatures in Greek mythology. He is a winged divine stallion usually depicted as pure white in color. He was sired by Poseidon, in his role as hor ...

, discovered by

Lawrence Parsons, 4th Earl of Rosse Lawrence Parsons, 4th Earl of Rosse, KP, FRS (17 November 1840 – 29 August 1908) was a member of the Irish peerage and an amateur astronomer. His name is often given as Laurence Parsons. Biography He was born at Birr Castle, Parsonstown, Ki ...

on 20 August 1873, and was described as "very faint, small, south of

NGC 1 NGC 1, also occasionally referred to as GC 1, UGC 57, PGC 564 or Holm 2a is an intermediate spiral galaxy of the morphological type Sbc, located approximately 210 to 215 million light-years from the Solar System in the constellation Pegasus. It ...

." It lies slightly to the south of

. It is a faint spiral galaxy of

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 ...

14.2. NGC 2 is about 115,000 light years in diameter, but is 3 to 5 times more luminous than the Milky Way as it is quite compact. AGC 102559, a galaxy 60,000-light-years in diameter, is the closest galaxy to NGC 2, being only 1.8 million light-years from it. Although it is apparently quite close to NGC 1, the latter is closer and unrelated to NGC 2.

References

External links

* * Source
NGC/IC Project
* {{DEFAULTSORT:NGC 0002 Galaxies discovered in 1873 NGC 0002 NGC 0002 0002 00059 00567 18730820 Discoveries by Lawrence Parsons