NGC 262 was tidally disturbed by the gravitational forces of smaller galaxies, which resulted in a surrounding large cloud over 10 times larger than the Milky Way.[9] It is also a member of the NGC 315 Group (also known as LGG 14), which 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.[10]
The cloud has an apparent mass of approximately 50 billion solar masses (M☉) at a distance of 88 kiloparsecs (287,000 light-years)[8] from the nucleus of NGC 262.[8] The cloud is spiral-shaped with at least one arm, and possibly another one extending throughout the galaxy. The galaxy holds approximately 15 trillion stars.[citation needed]
123The quick-look major axis physical diameters given by NED of 10.01 by 9.41 kiloparsecs (32,600 by 30,700 light-years) and 10.19 by 7.95 kiloparsecs (33,200 by 25,900 light-years) were based on a distance estimate of 21.5 megaparsecs (70.12million light-years). The quoted diameters in this infobox were based on NED's provided scale "Virgo + GA + Shapley" of 317 parsecs/arcsec multiplied with given angular diameters.
References
12Charlot, P.; Jacobs, C. S.; Gordon, D.; Lambert, S.; De Witt, A.; Böhm, J.; Fey, A. L.; Heinkelmann, R.; Skurikhina, E.; Titov, O.; Arias, E. F.; Bolotin, S.; Bourda, G.; Ma, C.; Malkin, Z.; Nothnagel, A.; Mayer, D.; MacMillan, D. S.; Nilsson, T.; Gaume, R. (2020). "The third realization of the International Celestial Reference Frame by very long baseline interferometry". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 644: A159. arXiv:2010.13625. Bibcode:2020A&A...644A.159C. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202038368.
↑Garcia, A. M. (1993). "General study of group membership. II. Determination of nearby groups". Astronomy and Astrophysics Supplement Series. 100: 47. Bibcode:1993A&AS..100...47G.
