The NGC 5866 Group is a small
group of galaxies
A galaxy group or group of galaxies (GrG) is an aggregation of galaxies comprising about 50 or fewer gravitationally bound members, each at least as luminous as the Milky Way (about 1010 times the luminosity of the Sun); collections of galaxies ...
located in the
constellation Draco
Draco is the Latin word for serpent or dragon.
Draco or Drako may also refer to:
People
* Draco (lawgiver) (from Greek: Δράκων; 7th century BC), the first lawgiver of ancient Athens, Greece, from whom the term ''draconian'' is derived
* ...
. The group is named after
NGC 5866
NGC 5866 (also called the Spindle Galaxy or Messier 102) is a relatively bright lenticular galaxy in the constellation Draco. NGC 5866 was most likely discovered by Pierre Méchain or Charles Messier in 1781, and independently found by William ...
, the galaxy with the highest
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 ...
in the group, although some galaxy group catalogs list
NGC 5907 as the brightest member.
Members
The table below lists galaxies that have been consistently identified as group members in the Nearby Galaxies Catalog,
the Lyons Groups of Galaxies (LGG) Catalog,
and the three group lists created from the Nearby Optical Galaxy sample of Giuricin et al.
Other possible members galaxies (galaxies listed in only one or two of the lists from the above references) include
NGC 5866B,
NGC 5963,
UGC 9776, and
UGC 9816.
Nearby groups
The NGC 5866 Group is located to the northwest of both the
M101 Group (which contains the
Pinwheel Galaxy (M101) and its companion galaxies) and the
M51 Group
The M51 Group is a group of galaxies located in Canes Venatici. The group is named after the brightest galaxy in the group, the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51A). Other notable members include the companion galaxy to the Whirlpool Galaxy ( M51B) and the S ...
(which contains the
Whirlpool Galaxy (M51), the
Sunflower Galaxy (M63), and several other galaxies).
The distances to these three groups (as determined from the distances to the individual member galaxies) are similar, which suggests that the M51 Group, the M101 Group, and the NGC 5866 Group are actually part of a large, loose, elongated structure.
However, most group identification methods (including those used by the references cited above) identify these three groups as separate entities.
See also
*
Leo Triplet - ''another small group of galaxies''
References
External links
{{Sky, 15, 12, 00, +, 56, 26, 00, 50300000
Virgo Supercluster
Draco (constellation)
Galaxy clusters