NGC 1300

NGC 1300 is a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation of Eridanus. It is about 61 million light-years away from Earth. It has around 110,000 light-years of diameter, about the same size of the Milky Way galaxy. It is a member of a galaxy cluster, the Eridanus Cluster, consisting of at least 200 galaxies.

Hubble image

It was discovered by John Herschel in 1835, and was included in the New General Catalogue as the 1300th member. The galaxy is well known for its long, bright, barred galactic bulge.

Center

The core of larger spiral arms of NGC 1300, the nucleus shows another inner grand-design spiral structure that is about 3,300 light-years long. These cases are rare, since it requires a galaxy with a large galaxy bars, to have the inner spiral. In a nutshell, the nucleus basically has another spiral arms in it, which makes it — a spiral in another spiral. Some models suggested that the arms can be pulled inwards, shaping a spiral into the nucleus, which may be pulled by the extreme gravity of a supermassive black hole at the very center of the galaxy.

NGC 1300 is not known to have an active nucleus, indicating it is not a quasar, nor accreting matter.