NGC 2903 is a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation leo, here is some basic data:
| Type: | SAB(rs)bc | (D,Tschoke, 2003) | ||
Size: |
12.6x6.0 arcmin | (NED) | 23.1x11.0 kpc | Calculated assuming distance = 6.29 Mpc |
| Magnitude (V): | 9.0 | (Dyer, Alan 2006) | ||
| Colour Index: | ||||
| Location (J2000): | RA: 09h32m10.11s | dec: +21d30m03.0s | (NED) | |
| Distance: | 20.5 Mly | (Frommert, Hartmut 1998) | 6.29 Mpc | calculated using value of 3.26 ly/pc (Birney, D. Scott 2006) |
| Radial Velocity: | 556 km/s | (NED) | ||
| Proper Motion: | N/A | |||
| Group Association: | none |
The following contains a brief explaination:
This is a spiral galaxy, classified as Sb (Frommert, Hartmut 1998) by the Hubble Classification System, and SAB(rs)bc (D,Tschoke, 2003) by the deVaucouleurs system. For more information on galaxy classification check out my Detailed Information section or click here for a much more detailed explaination.
An arcminute is a unit of angle.1 arcminute (1') is 1/60 of a degree (similarily, 1 arcsecond (1") is 1/3600 of a degree). The size of the galaxy in arcminutes is the amount of arc the galaxy subtends. A parsec is a unit of length. It's defined by the concept of parallax, basically, the amount an object shifts with respect to the background when it is observed from two different postitions. 1 parsec (pc) is defined as 1/1arcsecond (of parallax) where the angle of parallax is measured using the diameter of the earth's orbit as the baseline of the observations. If what I've just said is so much gobbeldygook, click here for a better explaination.
This is a measure of the "apparent brightness" of the object on a logarithmic scale. 1 change in magnitude corresponds to a 100x change in brightness, and the more negative the value is the brighter it is. Absolute magnitude is the "brightness" of the object as it would be seen from a distance of 10 pc.
This is a ratio of the absolute Blue magnitude to the absolute Visual magnitude and is given as C= B-V
RA (right ascention) and Dec(lination) are the equatorial coordinates of the sky (ie, same idea as longitude-latitude coordinates) with the north pole (Dec = 90 deg) corresponding to the north axis of the earth's rotation and the prime meridian (RA = 0 hours) coinciding with vega.
Radial velocity is the speed an object is moving towards or away from us along our line of sight, proper motion is the speed that it's moving perpendicular to our line of sight.
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Banner image is a slice of HST image by NASA/ESA.