AAO image reference INT 5. « Previous || Next »
Top left is NE. Image width is about 14 arc min
© 1991-2002, Malin/IAC/RGO. Photograph from Isaac Newton Telescope plates by David Malin.
M33 is a large, almost face-on spiral galaxy about 2.5 million light years distant in the northern constellation of Triangulum. It is a member of the 'Local Group' of galaxies, which is dominated by the Milky Way and M31. Like M31, M33 is approaching the Milky Way at a velocity of about 180km/s. Though the total light M33 galaxy is that of a star of magnitude 5.3, its large diameter makes it hard to see. However, despite its low surface brightness, this galaxy was among the first to be identified as a 'spiral nebula' by Lord Rosse in the 1840s. On shorter exposures, the nucleus appears very bright and almost stellar, like that in its southern cousin, NGC 300.
Entry from NGC 2000.0 (R.W. Sinnott, Ed.) © Sky Publishing Corporation, 1988:
NGC 598 Gx 01 33.9 +30 39 s Tri 62. 5.7 ! eB, eL, R, vgbMN; = M33Related images
INT 6. Outer regions of M33
More data about this galaxy is accessible from the hotlinked NGC name and is reproduced
with permission from the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED).