NGC 1275 is the central, dominant member of the Perseus Cluster of galaxies. A Seyfert galaxy (type Sy 1.5). It is actually two galaxies, a dusty spiral galaxy whose distorted arms are seen as dark filaments against the background of the massive elliptical galaxy it is colliding (and probably merging) with. Each galaxy is distorted by the gravity of the other one, and as clouds of gas in the galaxies collide or are compressed by the interaction, bursts of star formation occur. Among other things, the interaction produces intense radio radiation (probably from gas falling into a supermassive black hole near the center of the elliptical galaxy), hence the galaxies' designation as Perseus A (meaning the brightest radio source in Perseus). As emphasized by a false-color composite in the bottom image, the collision creates glowing filaments of gas which are kept from dissipating by strong magnetic fields extending from the core of the elliptical galaxy. Based on a recessional velocity of 5265 km/sec, NGC 1275 is about 235 million light years away, in good agreement with redshift-independent distance estimates of 210 to 270 million light years. Given that and an apparent size of 2.2 by 1.7 arcmin, the pair spans 150 thousand light years.

Per Corwin, Bigourdan thought he had found a new nebula because of an error in Lord Rosse's catalog; but realized that his #375 was the same as NGC 1278 while preparing his own catalog, so the identity of the two objects has been known for more than a century. Despite that, LEDA incorrectly lists IC 1907 = PGC 12405, and Wikisky follows its lead; so it may be best to use the PGC listing or position for any search involving IC 1907.

(See IC 314 for a discussion of the double listing.)