The Maffei 1 Group of Galaxies (also IC 342 Group)
The galaxies of this group have probably once formed a subgroup of our
Local Group, which during the
dynamical history of the group,
have been ejected because of a violent encounter with the
Andromeda Galaxy M31.
Since, they have moved away to an about 10 million light years distance.
As the Maffei 1 group lies very close to the Galactic plane (the equatorial
plane of our Galaxy), it is highly obscured by the dark dusty matter of our
Milky Way. Only one of them, IC 342, has got an IC number, and no one is in
the NGC.
The known galaxies in this group are (in the order of their discovery):
- IC 342 (UGC 2847)
- Maffei 1 (UGC-A 34)
- Maffei 2 (UGC-A 39)
- Dwingeloo 1
- Dwingeloo 2
UGCA 86, listed in our Local Group list, is also not lying far from IC 342.
It would be interesting to know its distance a bit more acurate, and to
investigate its possible involvement in the encounter scenario.
Astronomical data for the Maffei 1 group galaxies:
Name Con RA (2000) Dec
IC 342 Cam 03:46.8 +68:06
Maffei 1 Cas 02:36.3 +59:39
Maffei 2 Cas 02:41.9 +59:36
Dwingeloo 1
Dwingeloo 2
Hartmut Frommert
(spider@seds.org)
Christine Kronberg
(smil@lrz.uni-muenchen.de)
Last Modification: 8 Mar 1998, 21:30 MET