About NGC 7018
NGC 7018 is a rare galaxy. It sits in the constellation Cap and shines at apparent magnitude 16.8.
A triple galaxy system — three island universes tangled together, on a course that ends with them merging into one.
Rare galaxy 46 EP
NGC 7018
RA 316.8556° · Dec -25.4277° · openngc
Score breakdown
· 5 badgesRare 50 pts → Epic
- Galaxy triplet +22
- Galaxy +14
- Elliptical galaxy +4
- On the zodiac +3
- Faint fuzzy (mag > 13) +3
Total score 46
4 more points to reach Epic.
Badges
- Galaxy · +14
- Galaxy triplet · +22
- Elliptical galaxy · +4
- On the zodiac · +3
- Faint fuzzy (mag > 13) · +3
Trivia
What it actually is
- What it actually is. A triple galaxy system — three island universes tangled together, on a course that ends with them merging into one.
- Elliptical. An elliptical galaxy: a smooth swarm of stars on randomly tilted orbits, with almost no cold gas left to build anything new.
Sense of scale
- Sense of scale. Galaxies pass through each other almost without collisions — the stars are so far apart that they simply miss.
- 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 16.8 it is far too faint for the eye: this one belongs to cameras and long exposures, over in Capricornus.
- Southern sky. It rides the southern half of the sky — an easier target the further south you are.
- Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around August — that's when to go looking.
Its true colour
- Red and dead. Ellipticals glow reddish because every short-lived blue star they ever had has already died. Astronomers call them 'red and dead'.
Properties
- constellation
- Cap
- dso type
- GTrpl
- hubble
- E
- mag
- 16.8
- name
- NGC 7018
- size arcmin
- 0.93
How to see it
Look for NGC 7018 in the constellation Cap. At apparent magnitude 16.8, it takes a larger telescope or a long-exposure image to capture.
Like any astronomical target, NGC 7018 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 7018 is a rare galaxy
NGC 7018 scores 46 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 4 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 5 science badges — Galaxy, Galaxy triplet, Elliptical galaxy, On the zodiac and Faint fuzzy (mag > 13) — 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.