NGC 1566 is an intermediate spiral galaxy

Intermediate spiral galaxy

An intermediate spiral galaxy is a galaxy that is in between the classifications of a barred spiral galaxy and an unbarred spiral galaxy. It is designated as SAB in the galaxy morphological classification scheme.-Grades:...

 in the constellation

Constellation

In modern astronomy, a constellation is an internationally defined area of the celestial sphere. These areas are grouped around asterisms, patterns formed by prominent stars within apparent proximity to one another on Earth's night sky....

 Dorado. It is the dominant member of the Dorado Group

Dorado Group

The Dorado Group is a loose concentration of galaxies containing both spirals and ellipticals. It is generally considered a 'galaxy group' but may approach the size of a 'galaxy cluster'. It lies primarily in the southern constellation Dorado and is one of the richest galaxy groups of the Southern...

 and also its brightest member. It is the second brightest Seyfert galaxy

Seyfert galaxy

Seyfert galaxies are a class of galaxies with nuclei that produce spectral line emission from highly ionized gas, named after Carl Keenan Seyfert, the astronomer who first identified the class in 1943...

 after NGC 1068. Its absolute luminosity is 3.7 L_☉. It contains 1.4 M_☉

Solar mass

The solar mass , , is a standard unit of mass in astronomy, used to indicate the masses of other stars and galaxies...

 of H I

H I region

An H I region is an interstellar cloud composed of neutral atomic hydrogen , in addition to the local abundance of helium and other elements. These regions are non-luminous, save for emission of the 21-cm region spectral line. This line has a very low transition probability, so requires large...

.

SN 2010el

On June 19, 2010, Berto Monard from South Africa detected a magnitude

Apparent magnitude

The apparent magnitude of a celestial body is a measure of its brightness as seen by an observer on Earth, adjusted to the value it would have in the absence of the atmosphere...

 16 supernova

Supernova

A supernova is a stellar explosion that is more energetic than a nova. It is pronounced with the plural supernovae or supernovas. Supernovae are extremely luminous and cause a burst of radiation that often briefly outshines an entire galaxy, before fading from view over several weeks or months...

13" west and 22" south of the center of NGC 1566 at coordinates 04 19 58.83 -54 56 38.5.

External links

• Spitzer Space Telescope page on NGC 1566
• Discovery image of SN 2010el (2010-06-19; The star to the left of the core of the galaxy is magnitude 12.3)