(See IC 249 for a discussion of the triple listing.) Based on recessional velocity of 1295 km/sec, about 58 million light years away, in good agreement with a redshift-independent distance estimate of 52 million light years. Given that and apparent size of 1.95 by 1.05 arcmin, about 35 thousand light years across.

(HyperLeda and Wikisky mistakenly identify this object as also being IC 254, the fainter galaxy southwest of NGC 1065. The objects are correctly labeled on the wide-field image below.) Based on recessional velocity of 7395 km/sec, about 330 million light years away. Given that and apparent size of 0.6 by 0.6 arcmin, about 60 thousand light years across.

M77 is notable for having a bright central core which appears to be a typical spiral galaxy, surrounded by a much larger fainter outer region which, like our galaxy's halo, probably contains as much or more mass than the more obvious portion of the galaxy. Its Arp 37 classification as a spiral galaxy with faint companions appears to be a misinterpretation of bright star clouds which are part of the galaxy, as if they were separate galaxies. As seen in the images below, there are a number of faint outlying galaxies near M77, but they have no obvious relationship to it, and are probably background or foreground objects. Based on recessional velocity of 1135 km/sec, about 50 million light years away, in good agreement with redshift-independent distance estimates of 35 to 45 million light years. Given that and apparent size of 7 by 6 arcmin, about 100 thousand light years across. Also known to be a Seyfert galaxy (type Sy2).

     A 9th-magnitude spiral galaxy (type S(B)bI-II) in Fornax (RA 02 46 19, Dec -30 16 28) with an exceptionally bright central core, probably due to radiation from a supermassive black hole. In the (false-color) infrared image below, the core shines as brightly as the rest of the galaxy, perhaps due to a beam of radiation perpendicular to the plane of the clouds of gas and dust in the galaxy's disk. NGC 1097 and the dwarf elliptical companion wrapped in its spiral arms are about 50 million light-years away. (NASA, JPL-Caltech, SINGS Team (SSC), apod090727)