Seyfert's Sextet

Galaxy cluster
name = Seyfert's Sextet


caption = A Hubble Space Telescope (HST) image of Seyfert's Sextet. Credit: HST/NASA/ESA.
epoch=J2000
ra=RA|15|59|11.9cite web
title=NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database
work=Results for HCG 79
url=http://nedwww.ipac.caltech.edu/
accessdate=2006-10-29]
dec=DEC|+20|45|31
constellation = Serpens
member_no = 4
brightest_member = NGC 6027
other_names = Serpens Sextet, HCG 79, UGC 10116,
VV 115, VII Zw 631

Seyfert's Sextet is a group of galaxies about 190 million light-years away [http://www.laughtergenealogy.com/bin/hubble/html/seyfert.html] in the constellation Serpens Caput. The group appears to contain six members, but one of the galaxies is a background object and another "galaxy" is actually a separated part of one of the other galaxies. The gravitational interaction among these galaxies should continue for hundreds of millions of years. Ultimately, the galaxies will merge to form a single giant elliptical galaxy.

Discovery

The group was discovered by Carl Keenan Seyfert using photographic plates made at the Barnard Observatory of Vanderbilt University. When these results were first published in 1951, this group was the most compact group ever identified.cite journal
author=C. K. Seyfert
title=A Dense Group of Galaxies in Serpens
journal=Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
year=1951
volume=371
pages=72–75
url=http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1951PASP...63...72S
doi=10.1086/126319]

Members

ee also

*Robert's Quartet - "another compact group"
*Stephan's Quintet - "a well-known compact group"

External links

* [http://www.ne.jp/asahi/stellar/scenes/object_e/ngc6027.htm ASAHI Net Free Address Service: Seyfert's Sextet (Galaxy Group in Serpens)]
* [http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030124.html NASA APOD: Seyfert's Sextet]
* [http://www.seds.org/~spider/spider/Misc/seyfert6.html SEDS: Seyfert's Sextet (HCG 79)]
*WikiSky|NGC 6027

References