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Research dossier · General Reference

NGC 268

galaxy

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 3, 2026
Entity authorityQ1035939 ↗
Source-derived summary

NGC 268 is a spiral galaxy located in the constellation Cetus. It was discovered on November 22, 1785 by William Herschel.

Supernova

One supernova has been observed in NGC 268: SN 2012W (Type II, mag. 16.6) was discovered by the Catalina Real-time Transient Survey and Stan Howerton on 26 January 2012.

Editorial summary

“NGC 268” enters the record as galaxy. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what galaxy can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1785, 2012—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around galaxy.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“NGC 268” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, galaxy provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1035939. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1785 and 2012.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “NGC 268”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow NGC 268 primary sources, NGC 268 archive and galaxy research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “NGC 268”?
  2. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “NGC 268” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.