Rare galaxy 44 EP

NGC 4569

RA 189.2075° · Dec 13.1629° · openngc

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges

44 pts · Rare

Rare 50 pts → Epic

Galaxy +14
Messier object +12
Coming towards us +10
Spiral galaxy +5
On the zodiac +3

Total score 44

6 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

Galaxy · +14
Messier object · +12
Spiral galaxy · +5
On the zodiac · +3
Coming towards us · +10

Trivia

Hard to believe

Messier object. One of the 110 showpieces of the Messier list — catalogued as M90.

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

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 9.5 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Virgo.
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 March — that's when to go looking.

Its true colour

Its true colour. Its colour is a census: blue where gas is still collapsing into hot young stars, yellow-red in the old, settled core.

Properties

constellation: Vir
dso type: G
hubble: Sab
mag: 9.54
messier: yes
messier number: 090
name: NGC 4569
radial velocity kms: -235
size arcmin: 9.12
surface brightness: 23.16

Nearby objects

About NGC 4569

NGC 4569 is a rare galaxy. It sits in the constellation Vir and shines at apparent magnitude 9.54.

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 4569 in the constellation Vir. At apparent magnitude 9.54, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, NGC 4569 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 4569 is a rare galaxy

NGC 4569 scores 44 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 6 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Galaxy, Messier object, Spiral galaxy, On the zodiac and Coming towards us — 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.