| Object type: | Spiral (Type So) galaxy |
|---|---|
| Distance from Earth: | 40,000,000 light years 12 Megaparsecs |
| Distance across galaxy: | 60,000 light years 18,000 parsecs |
An estimated visual magnitude of 10.0 or 9.6 makes NGC 5866 no less beautiful to see. Seen from nearly edge on, the dark dust lane shows up nicely cutting through the center. It is the brightest of a lovely group of galaxies containing NGC 5907, NGC 5879, and several fainter galaxies (NGCs 5866A, 5866B, 5862, 5905, 5908, and IC 1099). Study of this group leads to an estimated mass for NGC 5866 of one trillion solar masses. It is also possible that NGC 5866 is M102.