The New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars (abbreviated as NGC) is a catalogue of deep-sky objects compiled by John Louis Emil Dreyer in 1888. The NGC contains 7,840 objects, known as the NGC objects. It is one of the largest comprehensive catalogues, as it includes all types of deep space objects, including galaxies, star clusters, emission nebulae and absorption nebulae.

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NGC 1232


NGC 1232, also known as the Eye of God Galaxy is an intermediate spiral galaxy about 60 million light-years away in the constellation Eridanus. It was discovered by German-British astronomer William Herschel on 20 October 1784. It is dominated by millions of bright stars and dark dust, in spiral arms rotating about the center. Open clusters containing bright blue stars are sprinkled along these spiral arms, with dark lanes of dense interstellar dust between. Less visible are dimmer stars and interstellar gas, comprising such a high mass that they dominate the dynamics of the inner galaxy. Not visible is matter of unknown form called dark matter, needed to explain the motions of the visible material in the outer galaxy. The galaxy is approximately 200,000 light-years across. The galaxy's spiral arms are not smooth and perturbed, leading to some suggesting a collision with a dwarf galaxy. However, some studies doubt this suggestion. NGC 1232 and its apparent companions are possibly part of the Eridanus cluster of galaxies, along with NGC 1300.

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Sources:

Wikipedia Page: NGC 1232
NGC 1232 at In-The-Sky website


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