The Cosmos with NGC 772

NGC 772 (also known as Arp 78) is an unbarred spiral galaxy approximately 130 million light-years away in the constellation Aries.

Around 200,000 light years in diameter, NGC 772 is twice the size of the Milky Way Galaxy, and is surrounded by several satellite galaxies – including the dwarf elliptical, NGC 770 – whose tidal forces on the larger galaxy have likely caused the emergence of a single elongated outer spiral arm that is much more developed than the others arms. Halton Arp includes NGC 772 in his Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies as Arp 78, where it is described as a “Spiral galaxy with a small high-surface brightness companion”.

Two supernovae (SN 2003 hl & SN 2003 iq) have been observed in NGC 772.

NGC 772 probably has a H II nucleus, but it may be a transitional object

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