* Astronomy

This image shows three galaxies, which are sometimes called the NGC5985/Draco Group, that lie between theta and iota Draco, in the northern constellation Draco.


Enlarge (22kb, 1354 x 972)
Enlarged View: Credit: Stefan Heutz, Wolfgang Ries, Cord Scholz

From left to right are face-on spiral NGC 5985, elliptical galaxy NGC 5982, and edge-on spiral NGC 5981 -- all within this single telescopic field of view spanning a little more than half the width of the full moon.
While this grouping is far too small to be a galaxy cluster and has not been catalogued as a compact group, these galaxies all do lie roughly 100 million light-years from planet Earth.

On close examination with spectrographs, the bright core of the striking face-on spiral NGC 5985 shows prominent emission in specific wavelengths of light, prompting astronomers to classify it as a Seyfert, a type of active galaxy. Not as well known as other tight groupings of galaxies, the contrast in visual appearance makes this triplet an attractive subject for astrophotographers.
This impressively deep exposure of region also reveals faint and even more distant background galaxies.

NGC 5981 (UGC 9948)
Position(2000): RA: 15h 37m 54s Dec: +59d 23' 00" Epoch 2000
Size: 2.7 x 0.3 arc-minutes
Magnitude: 13.0
Type: Spiral Galaxy

NGC 5982 (UGC 9961)
Position(2000): RA: 15h 38m 42s Dec: +59d 21' 00" Epoch 2000
Size: 3.0 x 2.1 arc-minutes
Magnitude: 11.1
Type: Spiral Galaxy

NGC 5985 (UGC 9969)
Position(2000): RA: 15h 39m 36s Dec: +59d 20' 00" Epoch 2000
Size: 5.4 x 2.7 arc-minutes
Magnitude: 11.1
Type: Spiral Galaxy