NGC 289

Constellation: Sculptor
Distance: 21 Mpc, (68 Million Light Years)

NGC 289 is a giant low surface brightness spiral possessing a small bulge and central bar with two sweeping dominant spiral arms that split into multiple components extending outward into a low surface brightness disk. The northern arm is likely disturbed by the small dwarf elliptical companion galaxy 3.3 arcmin north of nucleus. NGC 289 is remarkably gas rich which which allows for reliable radiowave investigation of its rotational velocity subsequently shown to be flat further supporting the theory of the existence of dark matter in galaxies.