NGC 1003 is a
spiral galaxy at the western edge of the
Perseusconstellation.[8] It is located at a distance of about 36 million
light years from the
Milky Way and is receding with a heliocentric
radial velocity of 624 km/s.[4] This galaxy was discovered by the Anglo-German astronomer
William Herschel on October 6, 1784, who described it as "pretty faint, large, extended 90°±, much brighter middle, mottled but not resolved".[9] It is a member of the
NGC 1023 group of galaxies.[5]
The
morphological class of NGC 1003 is SAcd, which means it is an unbarred spiral galaxy (SA) with somewhat loosely-wound
spiral arms (cd). It is inclined by an angle of 70° to the line of sight from the Earth, with the major axis aligned along a
position angle of 276°. The visual disk of the galaxy shows a substantial warping in the eastern side, turning it almost face on. The estimated
star formation rate is 0.40
M☉·yr−1.[6] It has a
virial mass of 3×1012M☉ and a mass-to-light ratio of 0.7.[7]
^Sinnott, Roger W.; Perryman, Michael A. C. (1997). Millennium Star Atlas. Vol. 1. Sky Publishing Corporation and the European Space Agency. p. 100.
ISBN0-933346-84-0.