A

David

Darling

M74 (NGC 628)

M74 (NGC 628)

M74. Image courtesy Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes.


M74 (NGC 628) is a conspicuous spiral galaxy in the constellation Pisces. M74 is a classic "grand-design" Sc galaxy (see galaxy classification) seen almost exactly face-on. Its spiral arms, some 1,000 light-years broad, are traced with clusters of young blue stars and pinkish colored diffuse gaseous nebulae (H II regions). These arms reach out to cover a region more than 10 arcminutes in diameter, corresponding to roughly 95,000 light-years, or about the same size as our Milky Way Galaxy.

 

visual magnitude 10.2
angular size 10.5' × 9.5'
distance 32 million light-years
recession velocity 793 km/s
position RA 01h 37m, Dec +15° 47'