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Rare galaxy 40 EP

NGC 628

RA 24.1740° · Dec 15.7837° · openngc

Real photograph of NGC 628 📷 Real photo
Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Janice Lee (STScI), Thomas Williams (Oxford)
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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
40 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Galaxy +14
  • Messier object +12
  • Outside our galaxy entirely +6
  • Spiral galaxy +5
  • On the zodiac +3
Total score 40

10 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Galaxy · +14
  • Outside our galaxy entirely · +6
  • Messier object · +12
  • Spiral galaxy · +5
  • On the zodiac · +3

Trivia

Hard to believe

  • Messier object. One of the 110 showpieces of the Messier list — catalogued as M74.

What it actually is

  • What it actually is. A galaxy: a gravitationally bound city of stars, gas and dark matter, turning so slowly that a single rotation takes hundreds of millions of years.
  • Spiral. A spiral galaxy. Those arms are not solid structures but traffic jams — density waves that stars drift into and out of as they orbit.

Sense of scale

  • In perspective. Further than Andromeda, the most distant thing the unaided human eye can see.
  • Scale. Home to hundreds of billions of stars — a universe unto itself, and every one of those points of light could have planets.

Find it in the sky

  • How to spot it. At magnitude 9.3 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Pisces.
  • Northern sky. It rides the northern half of the sky — an easier target the further north you are.
  • Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around October — that's when to go looking.

Properties

constellation
Psc
dist ly
30562955.7631
dso type
G
hubble
Sc
mag
9.31
messier
yes
messier number
074
name
NGC 628
radial velocity kms
655
redshift
0.0022
size arcmin
9.89
surface brightness
23.37

About NGC 628

NGC 628 is a rare galaxy. It lies about 30,562,955.8 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Psc and shines at apparent magnitude 9.31.

A galaxy: a gravitationally bound city of stars, gas and dark matter, turning so slowly that a single rotation takes hundreds of millions of years.

How to see it

Look for NGC 628 in the constellation Psc. At apparent magnitude 9.31, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, NGC 628 is best seen from a dark site away from city lights, and when it is above the horizon depends on your latitude and the time of year. The visibility panel above works out tonight's viewing window for your saved location.

Why NGC 628 is a rare galaxy

NGC 628 scores 40 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 10 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Galaxy, Outside our galaxy entirely, Messier object, Spiral galaxy and On the zodiac — each earned for a real, measurable property of the object. Rarity on Spacedle is never random: the more remarkable an object's astrophysics, the more badges it collects, the higher it scores, and the rarer it ranks.