A double discovery NGC 178 IC 39
The galaxy’s discovery is an interesting, and somewhat confusing, story. It was originally discovered by American astronomer Ormond Stone in 1885 and dubbed NGC 178, but its position in the sky was recorded incorrectly — by accident the value for the galaxy’s right ascension (which can be thought of as the celestial equivalent of terrestrial longitude) was off by a considerable amount.
In the years that followed NGC 178 was spotted again, this time by French astronomer Stéphane Javelle. As no catalogued object occupied that position in the sky, Javelle believed he had discovered a new galaxy and entered it into the expanded Index Catalogue under the name IC 39. Later, American astronomer Herbert Howe also observed the object and corrected Stone’s initial mistake. Many years later, astronomers finally noticed that NGC 178 and IC 39 were actually the same object!
This image of NGC 178 comprises data gathered by the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 aboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.Więcej informacji o licencji można znaleźć tutaj. Ostatnia aktualizacja: Sat, 20 Nov 2021 15:43:51 GMT