NGC 1024

NGC 1024 is a spiral galaxy located approximately 230 million light-years away in the constellation Aries. It is classified as a grand design spiral galaxy, characterized by its well-defined and prominent spiral arms.

Properties:

• Morphological Type: SA(s)b, indicating a spiral galaxy with a prominent bulge and moderately tightly wound arms.
• Redshift: A redshift of approximately 0.0168 indicates its distance and recession velocity due to the expansion of the universe.
• Apparent Magnitude: Around magnitude 13, requiring telescopes to observe.
• Size: It spans an estimated diameter of around 150,000 light-years, larger than the Milky Way.

Characteristics:

NGC 1024 exhibits significant star formation activity within its spiral arms, characterized by numerous bright blue stars and HII regions (areas of ionized hydrogen). These regions are sites where new stars are actively being born from collapsing clouds of gas and dust.

Discovery:

It was discovered by Wilhelm Herschel on September 18, 1786.

Environment:

NGC 1024 is a relatively isolated galaxy, not known to be part of a major galaxy cluster. However, it may have smaller companion galaxies in its vicinity.