Jump to lightspeed for the Darth Vader galaxy

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The reach of Star Wars is tremendous, bleeding into the zeitgeist for over 40 years and becoming a part of everyday language, but even George Lucas could never have imagined that Star Wars would reach 50 million light years away to a destination known as the Darth Vader galaxy far, far, FAR away.

Darth Vader’s Galaxy, also known as NGC 936, is a barred spiral galaxy located in the constellation Cetus, the Whale. It lies at an approximate distance of 50 million light years from Earth and has an apparent magnitude of 10.2.

NGC 936 occupies an area of 4.7 by 4.1 arcminutes of apparent sky. It was nicknamed after the Twin Ion Engine (TIE) starfighters, which were part of the Imperial fleet in the Star Wars universe. Lord Vader himself used one of these fighters in Episode IV.

The galaxy has a bright bulge and a prominent bar structure crossing it. Together with the bright ring of stars around the galaxy’s core, these resemble the cockpit and wings of the TIE fighters. The structure is visible in amateur telescopes.

Mark Newbold
Mark Newbold
Exploring the galaxy since 1978, Mark wrote his first fan fiction in '81 and been a presence online since his first webpage Fanta War in 1996. He currently contributes to ILM.com and SkywalkerSound.com, having previously written for Star Wars Insider, StarWars.com, Star Wars Encyclopedia, Build The Millennium Falcon, Starburst Magazine, Geeky Monkey, TV Film Memorabilia and Model and Collectors Mart. He is a four-time Star Wars Celebration Stage host (the only podcaster to have appeared on every Celebration podcast stage since it began in 2015), the Daily Content Manager of Fantha Tracks and the co-host of Making Tracks, Canon Fodder and Start Your Engines on Fantha Tracks Radio.
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The reach of Star Wars is tremendous, bleeding into the zeitgeist for over 40 years and becoming a part of everyday language, but even George Lucas could never have imagined that Star Wars would reach 50 million light years away to a destination known as the Darth Vader galaxy far, far, FAR away.

Darth Vader’s Galaxy, also known as NGC 936, is a barred spiral galaxy located in the constellation Cetus, the Whale. It lies at an approximate distance of 50 million light years from Earth and has an apparent magnitude of 10.2.

NGC 936 occupies an area of 4.7 by 4.1 arcminutes of apparent sky. It was nicknamed after the Twin Ion Engine (TIE) starfighters, which were part of the Imperial fleet in the Star Wars universe. Lord Vader himself used one of these fighters in Episode IV.

The galaxy has a bright bulge and a prominent bar structure crossing it. Together with the bright ring of stars around the galaxy’s core, these resemble the cockpit and wings of the TIE fighters. The structure is visible in amateur telescopes.

Mark Newbold
Mark Newbold
Exploring the galaxy since 1978, Mark wrote his first fan fiction in '81 and been a presence online since his first webpage Fanta War in 1996. He currently contributes to ILM.com and SkywalkerSound.com, having previously written for Star Wars Insider, StarWars.com, Star Wars Encyclopedia, Build The Millennium Falcon, Starburst Magazine, Geeky Monkey, TV Film Memorabilia and Model and Collectors Mart. He is a four-time Star Wars Celebration Stage host (the only podcaster to have appeared on every Celebration podcast stage since it began in 2015), the Daily Content Manager of Fantha Tracks and the co-host of Making Tracks, Canon Fodder and Start Your Engines on Fantha Tracks Radio.
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