Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jul 5, 2026

NGC 1271

NGC 1271 is a compact elliptical or lenticular galaxy located about 250 million light-years away in the constellation Perseus. The galaxy was discovered by astronomer Guillaume Bigourdan on November 14, 1884. NGC 1271 is a member of the Perseus Cluster and has a nuclear dust disk in its center. It also has an edge-on, intermediate-scale disk and has a central bulge. Like NGC 1277, NGC 1271 is a candidate "relic galaxy".

Last revised
Jul 5, 2026
Read time
≈ 2 min
Length
368 w
Citations
21
Source
NGC 1271
SDSS image of NGC 1271
Observation data (J2000 epoch)
ConstellationPerseus
Right ascension03h 19m 11.3s1
Declination41° 21′ 12″1
Redshift0.0191831
Heliocentric radial velocity5751 km/s1
Distance249 Mly (76.3 Mpc)1
Group or clusterPerseus Cluster
Apparent magnitude (V)15.11
Characteristics
TypeE/SO2
Mass/Light ratio1.353 M/L
Size~14,000 ly (4.4 kpc) (estimated)3
Apparent size (V)0.567 x 0.3061
Other designations
CGCG 540-96, PGC 123671

NGC 1271 is a compact elliptical or lenticular galaxy2 located about 250 million light-years away4 in the constellation Perseus.5 The galaxy was discovered by astronomer Guillaume Bigourdan on November 14, 1884.6 NGC 1271 is a member of the Perseus Cluster76 and has a nuclear dust disk in its center.3 It also has an edge-on, intermediate-scale disk and has a central bulge.2 Like NGC 1277, NGC 1271 is a candidate "relic galaxy".8

Supermassive black hole

Using orbital-based stellar dynamical models, Walsh et al. determined that the supermassive black hole in the center of NGC 1271 has a mass of 3.0+1.0
−1.1
×109 M
.3

See also

See also

References

References

  1. "NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database". Results for NGC 1271. Retrieved 2018-06-20.
  2. Graham, Alister W.; Ciambur, Bogdan C.; Savorgnan, Giulia A. D. (2016). "Disky Elliptical Galaxies and the Allegedly Over-massive Black Hole in the Compact "ES" Galaxy NGC 1271". The Astrophysical Journal. 831 (2): 132. arXiv:1608.00711. Bibcode:2016ApJ...831..132G. doi:10.3847/0004-637X/831/2/132. ISSN 0004-637X. S2CID 118435675.
  3. Walsh, Jonelle L.; Bosch, Remco C. E. van den; Gebhardt, Karl; Yildirim, Akin; Gültekin, Kayhan; Husemann, Bernd; Richstone, Douglas O. (2015-08-03). "The Black Hole in the Compact, High-Dispersion Galaxy NGC 1271". The Astrophysical Journal. 808 (2): 183. arXiv:1506.05129. Bibcode:2015ApJ...808..183W. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/808/2/183. ISSN 1538-4357. S2CID 41570998.
  4. "Your NED Search Results". ned.ipac.caltech.edu. Retrieved 2018-06-23.
  5. "Revised NGC Data for NGC 1271". spider.seds.org. Retrieved 2018-06-23.
  6. "New General Catalog Objects: NGC 1250 - 1299". cseligman.com. Retrieved 2018-06-15.
  7. Brunzendorf, J.; Meusinger, H. (October 1, 1999). "The galaxy cluster Abell 426 (Perseus). A catalogue of 660 galaxy positions, isophotal magnitudes and morphological types". Astronomy and Astrophysics Supplement Series. 139 (1): 141–161. Bibcode:1999A&AS..139..141B. doi:10.1051/aas:1999111. ISSN 0365-0138.
  8. Ferré-Mateu, Anna; Mezcua, Mar; Trujillo, Ignacio; Balcells, Marc; Bosch, Remco C. E. van den (2015). "Massive Relic Galaxies Challenge the Co-evolution of Super-massive Black Holes and Their Host Galaxies". The Astrophysical Journal. 808 (1): 79. arXiv:1506.02663. Bibcode:2015ApJ...808...79F. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/808/1/79. ISSN 0004-637X. S2CID 118777377.
External links