NGC 2608
NGC 2608 is a barred spiral galaxy located 93 million light-years away in the constellation Cancer. It was discovered by German-British astronomer William Herschel on 12 March 1785. It spans 62,000 light-years, approximately 60% of the Milky Way's diameter. It is considered a grand design spiral galaxy and is classified as SB(s)b, meaning that the galaxy's arms wind moderately around the prominent central bar.
It was classified under "galaxies with split arms" in the 1966 Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies by Halton Arp, who noted that the "nucleus may be double or superimposed star".
NGC 2608 is now thought to be a pair of interacting galaxies.
[Supernova]e
- SN 1920A was discovered on 8 February 1920, with an apparent magnitude of 12.9, by German astronomer Max Wolf. It reached peak brightness on 15 February 1920 at magnitude 12.05. Its visual magnitude implies an overluminous bolometric magnitude; SN 1920A has since been classified as anomalous and is believed to be the result of "a completely different explosion mechanism."
- SN 2001bg was discovered on 9 May 2001 by noted supernova hunter Tom Boles of Coddenham, Suffolk, England, with a 0.36 m Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope. When first observed, it had an apparent magnitude of 14; it later peaked at around 13.7. Its spectrum indicates that it is a typical Type Ia supernova.