NGC 6782 is a barred spiral galaxy located in the southern constellation of Pavo, at a distance of approximately 173 megalight-years from the Milky Way. It was discovered on July 12, 1834 by English astronomer John Herschel. John L. E. Dreyer described it as, "considerably faint, considerably small, round, a little brighter middle, 9th magnitude star to south". The morphological classification of NGC 6782 is (R1R′2)SB(r)a, indicating a barred spiral galaxy with a multiple ring system and tightly-wound spiral arms. It is seen nearly face-on, being inclined by an angle of 27.2°±0.2° to the line of sight from the Earth.

At the galactic core is an almost circular nuclear ring at the inner Lindblad resonance. This is attached to the primary bar, which extends out to a somewhat pointy, diamond-shaped inner ring. It is actually a double-barred galaxy, with an interior bar inside the nuclear ring. A pair of faint spiral arms extend out from the inner ring to the outer parts of the galaxy, where it joints a double outer ring system. Both inner rings of the galaxy are undergoing star formation, producing hot OB stars, with little star formation occurring in the remainder.


Gallery

See also

  • Messier 94 - a similar spiral galaxy

References

External links

  • Media related to NGC 6782 at Wikimedia Commons
  • Hubble Heritage site: Pictures and description

NGC 6782 Spiral Galaxy in Pavo

NGC 6872 Spiralgalaxie Astrobasics

NGC 7662

NGC 6822 Spektrum der Wissenschaft

We compare NGC 6782 and NGC 3504 to density distributions of