NGC 1052 is an elliptical galaxy in the constellation Cetus. It was discovered on January 10, 1785 by the astronomer William Herschel.^[3] It is a member of the eponymous NGC 1052 Group.^[1]

NGC 1052 is located at a distance of around 63 million light years from the Milky Way,^[4] and has a LINER-type active galactic nucleus which signals the intense starburst activity in the galaxy's center^[5] that were confirmed with observations with better resolution showing a number of star-forming regions and young star clusters.^[6]

NGC 1052 shows also two small jets emerging from its nucleus as well as a very extended disc of neutral hydrogen, far larger than the galaxy itself.^[7] Additionally, the stars and the ionized gas rotate along different axes.^[8] All these features suggesting a gas-rich galaxy collided and merged with it 1 billion years ago producing all the above features.^[6]

The shape of NGC 1052 is thought to be a triaxial ellipsoid. The longest axis of the ellipsoid is probably aligned at a position angle of −41°, which is the axis around which the ionized gas would be rotating.^[8]

A scale image of NGC 1052 and its satellite galaxies is available at the reference.^[9]

NGC 1052 hosts a rapidly rotating supermassive black hole with a mass of 154 million M_☉^[10] with a large magnetic field of between 0.02 and 8.3 Tesla, which, according to PhD student Anne-Kathrin Baczko, the leader of the team that made this discovery, provides enough magnetic energy to power the previously mentioned twin relativistic jets.^[11]

The location of this black hole is the most precisely known in the universe, with the exception of Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole found at the heart of our own galaxy.^[11]

• NGC 1052-DF2, a galaxy assumed to be associated with NGC 1052, and which appears to have little or no dark matter
• NGC 1052-DF4, another galaxy assumed to be associated with NGC 1052, and which appears to have little or no dark matter^[12]