Distance
Distance estimates to NGC 5128 established since the 1980s typically range between 3-5 Mpc. Classical Cepheids discovered in the heavily-obscured dust lane of NGC 5128 yield a distance between ~3-3.5 Mpc, depending on the nature of the extinction law adopted and other considerations. Mira variables and Type II Cepheids were also discovered in NGC 5128, the latter being rarely detected beyond local group. The distance to NGC 5128 established from several indicators such as Mira variables and planetary nebulae favour a more distant value of ~3.8 Mpc.
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Famous quotes containing the word distance:
“Morality without religion is only a kind of dead reckoning—an endeavor to find our place on a cloudy sea by measuring the distance we have run, but without any observation of the heavenly bodies.”
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882)
“Why does the past look so enticing to us? For the same reason why from a distance a meadow with flowers looks like a flower bed.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)
“Remember? We sat on a slab of rock.
From this distance in time,
it seems the color
of iris, rotting and turning purpler,
but it was only
the usual gray rock”
—Robert Lowell (1917–1977)