NGC 5566 is a

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 galaxies ...

in the constellation

Virgo Virgo may refer to: *Virgo (astrology), the sixth astrological sign of the zodiac * Virgo (constellation), a constellation *Virgo Cluster, a cluster of galaxies in the constellation Virgo *Virgo Stellar Stream, remains of a dwarf galaxy * Virgo Su ...

, which is approximately 66 million light years away from

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

. The galaxy is the biggest in the constellation Virgo, stretching nearly 150,000

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 ...

in diameter. The galaxy NGC 5566 was discovered on 30 April 1786 by the German-British astronomer

William Herschel Frederick William Herschel (; german: Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel; 15 November 1738 – 25 August 1822) was a German-born British astronomer and composer. He frequently collaborated with his younger sister and fellow astronomer Caroline ...

. It is included in

Halton Arp Halton Christian "Chip" Arp (March 21, 1927 – December 28, 2013) was an American astronomer. He was known for his 1966 ''Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies'', which (it was later theorized) catalogues many examples of interacting and merging galaxie ...

Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies The ''Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies'' is a catalog of peculiar galaxies produced by Halton Arp in 1966. A total of 338 galaxies are presented in the atlas, which was originally published in 1966 by the California Institute of Technology. The ...

. It is a member of the NGC 5566 Group of galaxies, itself one of the

Virgo III Groups The Virgo III Groups, or Virgo III Cloud, are a series of at least 75 galactic clusters and individual galaxies stretching approximately off the eastern edge of the Virgo Supercluster. Parts of it are in the constellations Virgo, Libra, and Serp ...

strung out to the east of the

Virgo Supercluster The Virgo Supercluster (Virgo SC) or the Local Supercluster (LSC or LS) is a mass concentration of galaxies containing the Virgo Cluster and Local Group, which itself contains the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies, as well as others. At least ...

of galaxies.

Gallery

File:NGC5566 - SDSS DR14.jpg, NGC 5566 (SDSS DR14) File:Ngc5566-hst-606.jpg, NGC 5566 ( HST) File:NGC 5560-NGC 5566-NGC 5569GALEX.jpg, NGC 5560 (top galaxy) and NGC 5566 (middle galaxy) and

NGC 5569 NGC commonly refers to: * New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars, a catalogue of deep sky objects in astronomy NGC may also refer to: Companies * NGC Corporation, name of US electric company Dynegy, Inc. from 1995 to 1998 * Nat ...

(bottom galaxy) from

GALEX Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX or Explorer 83 or SMEX-7) was a NASA orbiting space telescope designed to observe the universe in ultraviolet wavelengths to measure the history of star formation in the universe. In addition to paving the way ...

References

External links

*
GALEX

Jeff Burons's Astronomie Blog, NGC 5566

SEDS
Virgo (constellation)

5566 5566 was a Taiwanese boy band, formed under Taiwanese music company, J-Star. The name is derived from their original five members (Zax Wang, Jason Hsu, Sam Wang, Rio Peng and band leader Tony Sun), working in six entertainment fields (singing ...

09175 30083 286 Barred spiral galaxies {{Spiral-galaxy-stub