NGC 5008 (also known as IC 4381) is a massive

barred spiral galaxy A barred spiral galaxy is a spiral galaxy with a central bar-shaped structure composed of stars. Bars are found in about two thirds of all spiral galaxies, and generally affect both the motions of stars and interstellar gas within spiral galaxi ...

located in the

Boötes Boötes ( ) is a constellation in the northern sky, located between 0° and +60° declination, and 13 and 16 hours of right ascension on the celestial sphere. The name comes from la, Boōtēs, which comes from grc-gre, Βοώτης, Boṓtēs ...

constellation.

Details

It is located 530 million

light-years 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 ...

away from the

solar system The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar S ...

and was discovered by

Heinrich d'Arrest Heinrich Louis d'Arrest (13 August 1822 – 14 June 1875; ) was a Germans, German astronomer, born in Berlin. His name is sometimes given as Heinrich Ludwig d'Arrest. Biography While still a student at the Humboldt University of Berli ...

, a

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

n astronomer on May 18, 1862 as NGC 5008. It was again discovered on June 15, 1895 by Stephane Javelle who listed it in the

Index Catalogue The ''New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars'' (abbreviated NGC) is an astronomical catalogue of deep-sky objects compiled by John Louis Emil Dreyer in 1888. The NGC contains 7,840 objects, including galaxies, star clusters and em ...

as IC 4381. With a

diameter In geometry, a diameter of a circle is any straight line segment that passes through the center of the circle and whose endpoints lie on the circle. It can also be defined as the longest chord of the circle. Both definitions are also valid for ...

of 400,000 light-years, NGC 5008 easily dwarfs 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 ...

and is considered one of the largest galaxies. According to the

SIMBAD SIMBAD (the Set of Identifications, Measurements and Bibliography for Astronomical Data) is an astronomical database of objects beyond the Solar System. It is maintained by the Centre de données astronomiques de Strasbourg (CDS), France. SIMBA ...

Database, NGC 5008 has a

LINER A low-ionization nuclear emission-line region (LINER) is a type of galactic nucleus that is defined by its spectral line emission. The spectra typically include line emission from weakly ionized or neutral atoms, such as O, O+, N+, and S+. ...

type active galactic nucleus. It has a surface brightness

magnitude Magnitude may refer to: Mathematics *Euclidean vector, a quantity defined by both its magnitude and its direction *Magnitude (mathematics), the relative size of an object *Norm (mathematics), a term for the size or length of a vector *Order of ...

of 14.07, meaning it is a low-surface brightness galaxy.

Group membership

NGC 5008 is the dominant member of the

Hickson Compact group A Hickson Compact Group (abbreviation: HCG) is a collection of galaxies designated as published by Paul Hickson in 1982. The most famous group on Hickson's list of 100 objects is HCG 92, Stephan's Quintet. Hickson Compact Groups According to Hic ...

, HCG 71. The other members of the group are IC 4382, PGC 50640 and PGC 50641, which is further away compared to the other galaxies.

References

{{Boötes NGC objects IC objects UGC objects Barred spiral galaxies Astronomical objects discovered in 1862 2MASS objects Boötes 50629 +04-33-42 50629