NGC 6822

NGC 6822 (also known as Barnard's Galaxy, IC 4895, or Caldwell 57) is a barred irregular galaxy approximately 1.6 million light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius. Part of the Local Group of galaxies, it was discovered by E. E. Barnard in 1884, with a six-inch refractor telescope. It is the closest non-satellite galaxy to the Milky Way, but lies just outside its virial radius. It is similar in structure and composition to the Small Magellanic Cloud. It is about 7,000 light-years in diameter.

NGC 6822
NGC 6822 from ESO's Wide Field Imager at La Silla Observatory
Observation data (J2000 epoch)
ConstellationSagittarius
Right ascension19h 44m 56.6s
Declination−14° 47 21
Redshift−57 ± 2 km/s (−35.4 ± 1.2 mi/s)
Distance1.63 ± 0.03 Mly (500 ± 10 kpc)
Apparent magnitude (V)9.3
Characteristics
TypeIB(s)m
Apparent size (V)15.5 × 13.5
Other designations
Barnard's Galaxy, DDO 209, Caldwell 57, IC 4895, PGC 63616
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