Wolf-Lundmark-Melotte (WLM)

RA:

00 : 02.0

Dec:

-15 : 28

Type:

Ir +, IB(s) IV-V

RV:

-42 km/s

Distance:

3400 kly

Apparent Dimension:

12 x 4 '

Diameter:

8 kly

Brightness:

10.9 m_vis

Absolute Mag:

-14.7

Mass:

?

The distance of WLM is given at discordant values in recent compilations. While the ESO press release gives a distance which, corrected for the refined Cepheid distance scale by the Hipparcos satellite, is our adopted distance of 3.4 million light years; this is intermediate between the distances of Irwin (1998), van den Bergh (2000) and Mateo (1999), who gave values, refined for the Hipparcos data, of 3430, 3405 and 3375 kly, respectively. A previous estimate had pushed it out to 4.2 million light-years, and the database of Ferrarese et.al. (1999) gives a value of 17.8 times the distance of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), or about 3180 kly.

ESO Press Release Image.

• Full ESO Press Release 11/96.
• Original ESO Press Photo 34/96

Martin Germano obtained this gorgeous image of WLM.

• WLM page within the SEDS Messier database

• P.J. Melotte, 1926. New nebulae shown on Franklin-Adams chart plates. MNRAS 86, p. 636-638. Melotte states that this nebula was "also independently noted by Dr. [Knut] Lundmark when examining the same [photographic] plates."
• Max Wolf, 1913. Koenigstuhl-Nebel-Liste 11 : mittlere oerter, Beschreibung und Helligkseitsvergleichung von 94 Nebelflecken bei Alpha Ceti. Veroeffentlichungen der Grossherzoglichen Sternwarte zu Heidelberg (Koenigstuhl); Bd. 6, No. 2, p. 5-8.

Last Modification: January 7, 2000