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NGC 262
NGC 262 (also known as Markarian 348) is the largest known spiral galaxy,[5] located in the constellation Andromeda.[1] It is a Seyfert 2 spiral galaxy located 287 million light years away.[2] It was discovered on 17 September 1885 by Lewis A. Swift.[4] According to A.M. Garcia, NGC 262 is a member of the NGC 315 Group (also known as LGG 14). This group contains 42 galaxies, including NGC 226, NGC 243, NGC 266, NGC 311, NGC 315, NGC 338, IC 43, IC 66, AND IC 69, among others.[6] SizeThis galaxy has an estimated diameter of 1.3 Million Light-years.[5] It holds approximately 15 trillion stars.[citation needed] NGC 262 was tidally disturbed by the gravitational forces of smaller galaxies, which resulted in its large size.[7] NGC 262 is very unusual, since it is 10 times larger than a regular spiral galaxy of its type.[2] According to Morris and Wannier, NGC 262 is surrounded by a huge cloud of neutral hydrogen[2] that is probably caused by the tidal stripping of smaller galaxies. The cloud has an apparent mass of approximately 50 billion solar masses[2] at a distance of 88 kiloparsecs (287,000 light-years)[2] from the nucleus of NGC 262 and extending up to 300 kiloparsecs (1 million light-years) away.[2] The cloud is spiral-shaped with at least one arm, and possibly another one extending throughout the galaxy. See alsoReferences
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