NGC 507
About this celestial object
NGC 507 is the dominant elliptical galaxy at the centre of a nearby galaxy group in Pisces.
NGC 507 is the massive dominant elliptical galaxy at the centre of the NGC 507 group in Pisces. The group has a redshift of z = 0.01646, corresponding to a light-travel distance of roughly 220 million light-years in a standard cosmological model.
The group is embedded in an extensive halo of hot X-ray-emitting gas and dark matter. Radio and X-ray observations show that its atmosphere is dynamically active: older plasma from the central active galactic nucleus is being displaced and mixed by large-scale sloshing motions. NGC 499, northwest of the centre, is considered a likely perturber in this interaction.
This Vespera field contains 104 position-matched galaxies from the HyperLEDA catalogue, including NGC 499, NGC 508, NGC 504, NGC 515 and NGC 517. These labels describe galaxies in the photographed field; without matching distance or redshift measurements, not every marked object should automatically be regarded as a physical member of the NGC 507 group.
Image and observation
Catalogue: NGC 507 · UGC 938 · ARP 229 · PGC 5098
Capture date: 2026-08-09
Total exposure: 11850 s
Imaging and processing: Ulrich Schwarz · Vespera Pro
Read the sky journey
Welcome to this journey across the sky. Make yourself comfortable and let your gaze drift slowly into the depth of this image. Our view is directed toward the constellation Pisces and the group of galaxies surrounding NGC 507. Its light has travelled for roughly 220 million years to reach us. At the centre lies a vast elliptical galaxy, surrounded by hot gas, dark matter and many smaller galaxies. Numerous other points of light in this field belong to even more distant worlds in the background.
NGC 507
NGC 507 is the dominant elliptical galaxy at the centre of the group.
Its extended X-ray halo reveals the influence not only of one galaxy, but of the group's shared hot gas and dark matter.
NGC 508
NGC 508 appears immediately beside NGC 507 in projection.
X-ray observations reveal a small gaseous tail, although the galaxy is probably not the main trigger of the large-scale motion in the group gas.
NGC 499
NGC 499 lies northwest of the group centre.
It is considered a likely perturber whose passage may have triggered the spiral-shaped sloshing motions in the hot gas of the NGC 507 group.
NGC 504
NGC 504 is one of the clearly catalogued galaxies in the dense field southeast of NGC 507.
Its elongated appearance illustrates the variety of galaxy shapes within the same image.
NGC 515
NGC 515 lies east of the group centre and forms part of the conspicuous chain of bright catalogued galaxies.
In the Vespera image it appears much smaller than dominant NGC 507.
NGC 517
NGC 517 is the final stop on this journey through the central field.
Together with the many fainter PGC galaxies, it conveys the richness of the environment around NGC 507.