About Seyfert's Sextet
Seyfert's Sextet is an epic galaxy. It lies about 199,748,751.1 light-years from Earth and sits in the constellation Se1.
A whole group of galaxies bound together, the same kind of structure our Milky Way belongs to.
Epic galaxy 54 EP
Seyfert's Sextet
RA 239.7996° · Dec 20.7586° · openngc
Score breakdown
· 4 badgesEpic 78 pts → Anomaly
- Galaxy group +26
- Galaxy +14
- Has a proper name +8
- Outside our galaxy entirely +6
Total score 54
24 more points to reach Anomaly.
Badges
- Galaxy · +14
- Outside our galaxy entirely · +6
- Has a proper name · +8
- Galaxy group · +26
Trivia
What it actually is
- What it actually is. A whole group of galaxies bound together, the same kind of structure our Milky Way belongs to.
Sense of scale
- In perspective. Deep in the extragalactic distance — further than the entire Virgo Cluster of galaxies.
- Sense of scale. Groups like this are the bricks of the cosmic web: the largest structures gravity has had time to build.
- 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
- Where to look. You'll find it in the constellation Serpens Caput.
- 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 May — that's when to go looking.
Could we get there?
- Verdict. Impossible with our current technology — and the next millennium of it.
Properties
- constellation
- Se1
- dist ly
- 199748751.1028
- dso type
- GGroup
- name
- Seyfert's Sextet
- named
- yes
- radial velocity kms
- 4256
- redshift
- 0.0143
- size arcmin
- 2.8
Nearby objects
How to see it
Look for Seyfert's Sextet in the constellation Se1.
Like any astronomical target, Seyfert's Sextet 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 Seyfert's Sextet is an epic galaxy
Seyfert's Sextet scores 54 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the epic tier. Another 24 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 4 science badges — Galaxy, Outside our galaxy entirely, Has a proper name and Galaxy group — 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.