NGC 5508

NGC 5508
The spiral galaxy NGC 5508.
Observation data (J2000 epoch)
ConstellationBoötes
Right ascension14h 12m 29.0s
Declination24° 38′ 08″
Redshift0.038019 ± 0.000009
Heliocentric radial velocity11,398 km/s
Distance559 Mly (171.32 Mpc)
Apparent magnitude (V)13.8
Apparent magnitude (B)14.8
Surface brightness13.66 mag/am
Characteristics
TypeS0, S(rs)b? pec
Size352,000 ly (107.99 kpc)
Apparent size (V)1.1' x 0.8'
Other designations
PGC 50741, UGC 9094, MCG +04-34-002, CGCG 133-009

NGC 5508 is a very large and distant spiral galaxy located in the constellation Boötes. Its velocity relative to the cosmic microwave background is 11,615 ± 15 km/s, which corresponds to a Hubble's law of 171 ± 12 Mpc (∼558 million light-years).[1] It was discovered by French astronomer Édouard Stephan in 1882.

This galaxy is classified by all sources consulted, except Professor Seligman, as a lenticular galaxy. However, the image obtained from the SDSS survey clearly shows that it is a spiral galaxy.[2]

According to the Simbad database, NGC 5508 is a LINER galaxy, i.e. a galaxy whose nucleus exhibits an emission spectrum characterized by broad lines of weakly ionized atoms.[3]

NGC 5508 and PGC 50725, an optical pair.

The Hubble distance of neighboring galaxy PGC 50725 is 237.51 ± 16.63 Mpc (∼775 million light-years),[4] well beyond NGC 5508. Although they appear as neighbors on the celestial sphere, they do not form a physical galaxy pair.

  1. ^ "By Name | NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database". ned.ipac.caltech.edu. Retrieved 2024-07-24.
  2. ^ "New General Catalog Objects: NGC 5500 - 5549". cseligman.com. Retrieved 2024-07-26.
  3. ^ "Simbad - Object view". simbad.cds.unistra.fr. Retrieved 2024-07-24.
  4. ^ "By Name | NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database". ned.ipac.caltech.edu. Retrieved 2024-07-24.