NGC 5963 is a spiral galaxy in the northern constellation of Draco.[1] It was discovered on May 5, 1788 by German-British astronomer William Herschel.[10] NGC 5963 has an apparent visual magnitude of 13.1[1] and is located at a distance of 42 million light-years (13.0 Mpc) from the Milky Way galaxy.[5][6] It has an angular separation of just 9′ from NGC 5965, but the two galaxies are not physically related.[1] Although it is relatively isolated,[11] NGC 5963 is sometimes classified as a member of the NGC 5866 Group of galaxies.[6]
| NGC 5963 | |
|---|---|
 NGC 5963 (Sloan Digital Sky Survey) | |
| Observation data (J2000 epoch) | |
| Constellation | Draco[1] |
| Right ascension | 15h 33m 27.73s[2] |
| Declination | +56° 33′ 33.9″[2] |
| Redshift | 0.00215±0.00009[3] |
| Heliocentric radial velocity | 654 km/s[4] |
| Distance | 42.4 ± 9.8 Mly (13.0 ± 3.0 Mpc)[5][6] |
| Apparent magnitude (V) | 13.1[1] |
| Characteristics | |
| Type | S/Sc[7][5] or S pec[8] |
| Size | 15 kpc[5] |
| Apparent size (V) | 4.0′ × 3.0′ |
| Other designations | |
| NGC 5963, UGC 9906, PGC 55419[9] | |
The morphological classification of NGC 5963 is Sc, indicating a spiral galaxy with somewhat loosely wound spiral arms.[5] It is characterized by an unusually low surface brightness and has just a hint of a bulge component.[11][1] There is a high surface brightness nuclear region with an oval shape spanning ~40″, which forms a spiral sub-system. Surrounding this is a patchy, loosely wound spiral forming a faint disk.[11] The rotation curve of NGC 5963 matches that of similar galaxies with normal surface brightness, suggesting this galaxy has a more concentrated halo.[5]
References
External links
- NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day: NGC 5965 and NGC 5963 in Draco (February 16, 2012)
Media related to NGC 5963 at Wikimedia Commons
