NGC 2

Lore & Background

NGC 2 was discovered by Lawrence Parsons, 4th Earl of Rosse on 20 August 1873. It was first observed on 24 August 1873 and described as 'very faint, small, south of GC 1.' The galaxy is cataloged as GC 6246 in Dreyer's 1877 Supplement to the General Catalogue of Nebulae And Clusters of Stars, and also appears as UGC 59, PGC 567, CGCG 478–027, and MCG +04-01-026.

NGC 2 is a spiral galaxy with a diameter of about 60,000 light-years, smaller than the Milky Way. It lies approximately 345 million light-years from the Solar System. Its closest known galactic neighbor is AGC 102559, a spiral galaxy 60,000 light-years in diameter, located only 1.8 million light-years from NGC 2. Although NGC 2 is visually close to NGC 1 in the sky, the two are at very different distances—NGC 1 is about 210 million light-years away—making them an optical double rather than a physical pair.

Reader's Guide

NGC 2 holds significance as one of the earliest cataloged galaxies in the NGC, discovered by Lawrence Parsons in 1873. Its classification as an intermediate spiral galaxy (Sab) places it in a transitional morphological category between barred and unbarred spirals. The galaxy's optical pairing with NGC 1 is a classic example of a chance alignment, where two objects at vastly different distances appear close together in the sky. This phenomenon is well illustrated by the fact that NGC 2 is about 345 million light-years away, while NGC 1 is only 210 million light-years distant. The proximity of NGC 2 to the spiral galaxy AGC 102559—just 1.8 million light-years apart—highlights the complex local environment of galaxies in the Pegasus constellation. With a diameter of roughly 60,000 light-years, NGC 2 is smaller than the Milky Way, yet it remains a key object for studying intermediate spiral structures and the distribution of galaxies in the local universe. Its multiple catalog designations (UGC 59, PGC 567, etc.) reflect its importance in various astronomical surveys.