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This bright, somewhat blob-like object \u2014 seen in this\u00a0Picture of the Week\u00a0as observed by the\u00a0NASA\/ESA Hubble Space Telescope\u00a0\u2014 is a galaxy named NGC 1803. It is about 200 million light-years away, in the southern constellation of\u00a0Pictor\u00a0(The Painter\u2019s Easel).<\/p>\n
NGC 1803 was discovered in 1834 by astronomer\u00a0John Herschel. Herschel is a big name in astronomy; John, his father\u00a0William, and his aunt\u00a0Caroline\u00a0all made huge contributions to the field, and their legacies remain today. William systematically catalogued many of the objects he viewed in the night sky, named many moons in the\u00a0Solar System, discovered\u00a0infrared radiation, and more. Caroline discovered several comets and nebulae. John took this aforementioned catalogue of night-sky objects and reworked and expanded it into his\u00a0General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars. This was the basis for the cataloguing system still used today by astronomers (Dreyer\u2019s\u00a0New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars, or the\u00a0New General Catalogue\u00a0for short).<\/p>\n
This gives rise to the NGC names assigned to a vast number of galaxies \u2014 including NGC 1803. This galaxy is one of a galactic pair. It was described by Dreyer as being \u201cfaint, small, [and] round\u201d, and located near to a very bright star to the southeast. This star is in fact the nebulous lenticular galaxy PGC 16720 \u2014 not visible in this image.<\/p>\n