page_title: NGC 5247
hierarchical_section_title: NGC 5247
caption_attribution_description: English: This image shows NGC 5247, a grand design barred spiral galaxy, located 60–70 million light-years away. The galaxy lies face-on towards Earth, thus providing an excellent view of its pinwheel structure and multiple arms. It is in the zodiacal constellation of Virgo (the Maiden). The image was made in infrared light with the HAWK-I camera on ESO’s Very Large Telescope at Paranal Observatory in Chile. HAWK-I is one of the most powerful infrared imagers in the world, and this is one of the sharpest and most detailed pictures of this galaxy ever taken from Earth. The filters used were Y (shown here in blue), J (in light blue), H (in green), and K (in red). The field of view of the image is about 6.4 arcminutes.
context_page_description: NGC 5247 is a face-on unbarred spiral galaxy located some 60 million light years away in the constellation Virgo. It most likely belongs to the Virgo Supercluster of galaxies; the same supercluster that hosts the Milky Way galaxy. This is a grand design spiral galaxy that displays no indications of distortion caused by interaction with other galaxies. It has two spiral arms that bifurcate after wrapping halfway around the nucleus. The disk is estimated to be 4.9 ± 2.0 kly in thickness and it is inclined by roughly 28° to the line of sight.
context_section_description: NGC 5247 is a face-on unbarred spiral galaxy located some 60 million light years away in the constellation Virgo. It most likely belongs to the Virgo Supercluster of galaxies; the same supercluster that hosts the Milky Way galaxy. This is a grand design spiral galaxy that displays no indications of distortion caused by interaction with other galaxies. It has two spiral arms that bifurcate after wrapping halfway around the nucleus. The disk is estimated to be 4.9 ± 2.0 kly (1.5 ± 0.6 kpc) in thickness and it is inclined by roughly 28° to the line of sight.
caption: Image of NGC 5247 made in infrared light with the HAWK-I camera on ESO's Very Large Telescope at Paranal Observatory.
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