Maffei 2

Maffei 2 is an intermediate spiral galaxy about 10 million light-years away^[2] in the constellation Cassiopeia. Maffei 2 and Maffei 1 were both discovered by Paolo Maffei in 1968 from their infrared emission. Maffei 2 lies in the Zone of Avoidance and is about 99.5% obscured by the Milky Way's foreground dust clouds,^[3] and as a result is barely detectable at optical wavelengths. It had been suggested soon after its discovery that Maffei 2 may be a member of the Local Group, but it is now thought to be a member of another nearby group, the IC 342/Maffei Group, the galaxy group that is the closest to the Local Group.

Maffei 2
Image by Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS)
Observation data (J2000 epoch)
Constellation	Cassiopeia
Right ascension	02h 41m 55.1s[1]
Declination	+59° 36′ 15″[1]
Redshift	-17 ± 5 km/s[1]
Distance	9.8 Mly[2]
Apparent magnitude (V)	16.0[1]
Characteristics
Type	SAB(rs)bc[1]
Apparent size (V)	15.2′ × 7.0′[1]
Other designations
UGCA 39,[1] PGC 10217,[1] Sharpless 197

See also

• Dwingeloo 1
• NGC 1300