| NGC 5508 | |
| Constellation Name: | Boötes |
| Z: | 0.038019 ± 0.000009 |
| Epoch: | J2000 |
| H Radial V: | 11,398 km/s |
| Dist Ly: | 559 Mly (171.32 Mpc) |
| Appmag V: | 13.8 |
| Appmag B: | 14.8 |
| Sbrightness: | 13.66 mag/am |
| Type: | S0, S(rs)b? pec |
| Size: | 352,000 ly (107.99 kpc) |
| Size V: | 1.1' x 0.8' |
| Names: | PGC 50741, UGC 9094, MCG +04-34-002, CGCG 133-009 |
NGC 5508 is a very large and distant spiral galaxy located in the constellation Boötes. Its velocity relative to the cosmic microwave background is 11,615 ± 15 km/s, which corresponds to a Hubble's law of 171 ± 12 Mpc (∼558 million light-years).[1] It was discovered by French astronomer Édouard Stephan in 1882.
This galaxy is classified by all sources consulted, except Professor Seligman, as a lenticular galaxy. However, the image obtained from the SDSS survey clearly shows that it is a spiral galaxy.[2]
According to the Simbad database, NGC 5508 is a LINER galaxy, i.e. a galaxy whose nucleus exhibits an emission spectrum characterized by broad lines of weakly ionized atoms.[3] The Hubble distance of neighboring galaxy PGC 50725 is 237.51 ± 16.63 Mpc (∼775 million light-years),[4] well beyond NGC 5508. Although they appear as neighbors on the celestial sphere, they do not form a physical galaxy pair.