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 7793


NGC 7793 is a flocculent spiral galaxy in the southern constellation of Sculptor. It was discovered in 1826 by Scottish astronomer James Dunlop. The galaxy is located at a distance of 12.2 million light years and is receding with a heliocentric radial velocity of 227 km/s. NGC 7793 is one of the five brightest galaxies within the Sculptor Group. The morphological class of NGC 7793 is SA(s)d, indicating it is unbarred spiral galaxy (SA) with no inner ring structure (s) and the arms are loosely wound and disorganized (d). It is flocculent in appearance with a very small bulge and a star cluster at the nucleus. The galactic disk is inclined at an angle of 53.7° to the line of sight from the Earth. The visible profile is elliptical in form with an angular size of 9.3′ × 6.3′ and a major axis aligned along a position angle of 99.3°. There are two nearby dwarf galaxy companions. On March 25, 2008, a type II-P supernova designated SN 2008bk was discovered in NGC 7793. At apparent magnitude 12.5, it became the 2nd brightest supernova of 2008. The progenitor of this supernova was a red supergiant, observed only 547 days prior to the explosion. NGC 7793 hosts the ultra-luminous X-ray pulsar (ULXP) referred to as NGC 7793 P13 (previously believed to harbor a black hole), which consists of a 0.42-second pulsar in a 64-day orbit with a 18-23 solar mass B9Ia companion star.

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Sources:

Wikipedia Page: NGC 7793
NGC 7793 at In-The-Sky website


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