NGC 2008

NGC 2008 is a distant spiral galaxy located in the constellation Pictor. Its speed relative to the cosmic microwave background is 10,367 ± 11 km/s, which corresponds to a Hubble distance of 153 ± 11 Mpc (~499 million ly). NGC 2008 was discovered by British astronomer John Herschel in 1834. The luminosity class of NGC 2008 is III.

To date, four non-redshift measurements yield a distance of 135.750 ± 10.521 Mpc (~443 million ly), which is within the Hubble distance range. Note, however, that it is with the average value of independent measurements, when they exist, that the NASA/IPAC database calculates the diameter of a galaxy and that consequently the diameter of NGC 2008 could be approximately 77 kpc (~253,000 ly) if we used the Hubble distance to calculate it.

According to Soares and his colleagues, NGC 2007 and NGC 2008 form a pair of galaxies. However, the Hubble distance of NGC 2007 is 67.57 ± 4.73 Mpc (~220 million ly). These two galaxies therefore form a purely optical pair.