The sky around NGC 972 at true scale, north up and east left, with stars to magnitude 8. The circles show the field of a low-power eyepiece and of 10×50 binoculars.
NGC 972 is a spiral galaxy (Sab) in Aries, 48 million light-years away
NGC 972 (PGC 9788, UGC 2045) is a spiral galaxy (Sab) in the constellation Aries, 48 million light-years away. It shines at magnitude 11.3 and spans 3.3′ × 1.6′ of sky, about 45,700 light-years across. It is a telescope object, 6 inches or larger, and it is highest in the evening sky in December.
Galaxy: a system of billions of stars, gas and dust held together by gravity, far outside the Milky Way. Spiral galaxies have a disk with arms; elliptical galaxies are smooth, round or oval swarms of older stars.
Finding NGC 972 from Hamal
NGC 972 lies 8.4° northeast of Hamal, the magnitude 2.0 star. A fist held at arm's length covers about 10°.
NGC 972 is highest in the evening in December
The chart gives its height above the horizon at 9 pm through the year, from 60°N to 40°S. It can be seen from the whole northern hemisphere and south to about 61°S, and never sets north of 61°N.
NGC 972 is 48 million light-years away
The light seen from NGC 972 tonight left it about 48 million years ago, long before modern humans existed. It ranks 99 of 422 by distance among the galaxies on Go Astronomy. Distance source: Cosmicflows-4 (Tully et al. 2023).
Objects within 6° of NGC 972
No other Messier, Caldwell or Herschel 400 object lies within 6°.
