NGC 2552 is a

Magellanic spiral Magellanic spiral galaxies are (usually) dwarf galaxies which are classified as the type Sm (and SAm, SBm, SABm). They are galaxies with one single spiral arm, and are named after their prototype, the Large Magellanic Cloud, an SBm galaxy. They ca ...

galaxy A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, dark matter, bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Greek ' (), literally 'milky', a reference to the Milky Way galaxy that contains the Solar System. ...

located some 22 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. It can be found in

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 ...

Lynx A lynx is a type of wild cat. Lynx may also refer to: Astronomy * Lynx (constellation) * Lynx (Chinese astronomy) * Lynx X-ray Observatory, a NASA-funded mission concept for a next-generation X-ray space observatory Places Canada * Lynx, Ontar ...

. This is a type of unbarred

dwarf galaxy A dwarf galaxy is a small galaxy composed of about 1000 up to several billion stars, as compared to the Milky Way's 200–400 billion stars. The Large Magellanic Cloud, which closely orbits the Milky Way and contains over 30 billion stars, is ...

, usually with a single spiral arm. It is inclined by 41° to the line of sight from the Earth along a

position angle In astronomy, position angle (usually abbreviated PA) is the convention for measuring angles on the sky. The International Astronomical Union defines it as the angle measured relative to the north celestial pole (NCP), turning positive into the d ...

of 229°. The measured velocity dispersion of the stars in NGC 2552 is relatively low—a mere 19 ± 2

km/s The metre per second is the unit of both speed (a scalar quantity) and velocity (a vector quantity, which has direction and magnitude) in the International System of Units (SI), equal to the speed of a body covering a distance of one metre in ...

. This galaxy forms part of a loose triplet that includes

NGC 2541 NGC 2541 is an unbarred spiral galaxy located about 40 million light-years away. It is in the NGC 2841 group of galaxies with NGC 2500, NGC 2537, and NGC 2552 NGC 2552 is a Magellanic spiral galaxy located some 22 million light years away. It ...

and

NGC 2500 NGC 2500 is a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Lynx which was discovered by William Herschel in 1788. Much like the local group in which our own Milky Way galaxy is situated, NGC 2500 is part of the NGC 2841 group of galaxies which also ...

, which together belong to the

NGC 2841 group The NGC 2841 group is a group of galaxies about 19.6 million light-years away from Earth. It includes the loose triplet NGC 2541, NGC 2500, and NGC 2552. NGC 2841 is the fourth-brightest galaxy in Ursa Major with an apparent magnitude of 9.2. ...

References

External links

* *astronomerica.awardspace.co
NGC2552
image * Unbarred spiral galaxies Irregular galaxies 2552 Lynx (constellation) 023340 {{Spiral-galaxy-stub