NGC 474

Halton Arp made NGC 474 the 227th entry in his Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies (i.e., Arp 227) that he published in 1966. NGC 474 is the galaxy in the upper left of the frame.

NGC 474 is a large elliptical galaxy in Pisces about 100 million light years away. It contains complex shells, likely caused by its absorption of smaller galaxies. With a diameter of 250,000 light years, NGC 474 is two-and-a-half times larger than our own galaxy.

Just to its right, you can see the spiral galaxy NGC 470. It’s somewhat closer to us at a distance of approximately 91 million light years.

Below and to the right, the very odd galaxy NGC 467 shows a somewhat similar shell structure as NGC 474. It’s somewhat smaller than NGC 474—and it’s much farther away at a distance of 235 million light years. There are several tiny (from our vantage) galaxies in frame that range in distance from 88 million to 245 million light years.