NGC 501
Elliptical galaxy in the constellation Pisces
NGC 501, also occasionally referred to as PGC 5082 or GC 284, is an elliptical galaxy in the constellation Pisces. It is located approximately 224 million light-years from the Solar System and was discovered on 28 October 1856 by Irish astronomer R. J. Mitchell.
01Observation history
Although John Dreyer, creator of the New General Catalogue, credits the discovery to astronomer William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse, he notes that many of his claimed discoveries were made by one of his assistants. In the case of NGC 501, the discovery was made by R. J. Mitchell, who discovered it using Lord Rosse's 72" reflecting telescope at Birr Castle in County Offaly, Ireland. The object was described "very faint, small (E in Birr diagram)" in the New General Catalogue.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “NGC 501”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- NGC 0501 SDSS.jpg by Donald Pelletier, CC BY-SA 4.0
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