[Sculptor Group Galaxies; AAO]

The Sculptor Group of Galaxies (also South Polar Group)

This is the closest group of galaxies to our Local Group, at only about 10 million light years distance. It is named the Sculptor Group as it is centered in the Southern constellation Sculptor, and South Polar Group as its members are grouped around the South galactic pole (which is at RA 00:51.4, Dec -27:07 (2000.0)).

The group is dominated by bright NGC 253, the Sculptor or Silver Coin Galaxy, one of the brightest galaxies beyong the Local Group in the skies. All the group's members are listed in the following:

(*) indicates membership according to Bryan Miller's research; see his photo collection

Moreover, NGC 45 and IC 5332 were once dealt as a possible member of this group of galaxies, but ttheir larger redshift (504 km/s for NGC 45, 706 km/s for IC 5332 compared to about 90-250 km/s for the larger member galaxies) indicates that these galaxies are more probably background objects.

The first evidence of intergalactic matter was discovered in the Sculptor group of galaxies in 1974, in intergalactic space between NGC 55 and NGC 300.

The photos displayed here were all taken with the 3.9-meter Anglo-Australian Telescope and are copyrighted © Anglo-Australian Observatory. For any but private usage of these images please contact the Photo Permissions Department of the Anglo-Australian Observatory. Astronomical data for the Sculptor Group galaxies: 

Name       Con  RA (2000)  Dec  Type       m_v   dim        RV


NGC 45     Cet  00:14.1 -23:11  S- IV-V    10.4   8.1x 5.8  +508
NGC 55     Scl  00:14.9 -39:11  SBm:        8.2  32.4x 6.5  + 98
NGC 247    Cet  00:47.1 -20:46  S- IV       8.9  20.0x 7.4  +180:
NGC 253    Scl  00:47.6 -25:17  Scp         7.1  25.1x 7.4  +259
NGC 300    Scl  00:54.9 -37:41  Sd III-IV   8.7p 20.0x14.8  + 97:
NGC 7793   Scl  23:57.8 -32:35  Sdm         9.1   2.6x 1.9  +214
SDIG
A 143
E 471-G06
E 407-G18
DDO 226
DDO 6
E 294-G10
E 410-G05

Hartmut Frommert (spider@seds.org)
Christine Kronberg (smil@lrz.uni-muenchen.de)

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Last Modification: 8 Mar 1998, 21:35 MET