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NGC 1634

Elliptical Galaxy in Taurus

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Proper Name	None
Messier Number	None
NGC/IC Number	NGC 1634
Constellation	Taurus
Right Ascension	4h 40m 10s
Declination	+7° 20' 19"
Distance	c.195,400,000 light years c.59,900,000 parsecs
Magnitude	Apparent: +14.96 Absolute: -20.20
Mean Diameter	Apparent: 0.7' Actual: 67,900 light years
Hubble Type	E Elliptical
Optimum Visibility	December
Notes	As seen from Earth, NGC 1634 lies westward of the arc of Orion's Shield, across the border from Orion in the neighbouring constellation of Taurus. This is an elliptical galaxy approaching 70,000 light years in diameter, and forms an apparent pair with the intermediate spiral galaxy NGC 1633.

Seen from Earth, NGC 1634 forms a pair with spiral NGC 1633 to the north (and indeed the forms of the two galaxies appear to overlap one another). In fact, these two galaxies are widely separated in space, by an estimated distance of some twenty-five million light years. NGC 1634 and NGC 1633 are similar in size to one another (each having a diameter of about 70,000 light years) and spiral NGC 1633 only appears larger in this image because it is considerably closer to the Milky Way. Imagery provided by Aladin sky atlas

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