Bean galaxy
Massive elliptical radio galaxy in the constellation Draco
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The Bean Galaxy, also known as 7C 1715+6442 is a supergiant elliptical galaxy, active galaxy, radio galaxy, and brightest cluster galaxy in the constellation of Draco.[1][2][3] The galaxy is 1.09 billion light years (or 334,000,000 parsecs) away at a spectroscopic redshift of z = 0.07898.[1][2] The galaxy has an apparent K magnitude of 11.568.[1] The Bean Galaxy is the brightest cluster galaxy of SDSS-C4 3089, and this galaxy cluster contains a total of 17 galaxies.[4] The galaxy was discovered in 1980 by the Westerbork Radio Telescope in the 14th list of radio sources.[5]
| Bean Galaxy | |
|---|---|
DESI Legacy Surveys DR9 photo of the Bean Galaxy. | |
| Observation data (J2000 epoch) | |
| Constellation | Draco |
| Right ascension | 17h 15m 30.04s |
| Declination | +64° 39' 51.61" |
| Redshift | 0.07898 |
| Heliocentric radial velocity | 22745 |
| Distance | 1.089 bly (334 mpc) |
| Group or cluster | SDSS-C4 3089 |
| magnitude (K) | 11.568 |
| Characteristics | |
| Type | cD |
| Mass | 1.349×1012 M☉ |
| Size | 319,000 ly (97,800 pc) |
| Other designations | |
| 7C 1715+6442, LEDA 59953, PGC 59953, WN B1715+6442 | |
Characteristics
The Bean Galaxy is a massive, large supergiant elliptical galaxy in the galaxy cluster, SDSS-C4 3089.[1][2] The galaxy has a total diameter of 319,000 light years (or 97,800 parsecs) across, or roughly three times larger than the Milky Way.[2] The size was estimated using the 2MASS K-band total mag angular diameter of approximately one arcmin (or 60.4 arcsecs), and a redshift-independent distance of 1.09 billion light years (or 334,000,000 parsecs) away.[2]
The Bean Galaxy is thought to be exceptionally massive, having a stellar mass of 1.35 trillion M☉ (or 1012.13).[6] The stellar population of the galaxy is predicted to be old, with an average age of 6.75 billion years old (or 109.829).[7] The stellar population mainly consists of metal-poor red giant branch, and asymptotic giant branch stars.[7] The galaxy has a star-formation rate of 0.235 M☉ per year, typical for gas-poor elliptical galaxies.[8]
The galactic center of the Bean Galaxy has an active galactic nucleus (also referred to as an AGN), which is small region in the galactic center of a galaxy that is very luminous and energetic.[2] The active galactic nucleus is powered by a large supermassive black hole (also known as an SMBH) with a mass of 2.207 billion M☉ estimated using velocity dispersion.[9]
The Bean Galaxy is classified as a giant radio galaxy (also called as an GRG), i. e. a radio galaxy with radio lobes larger than 2.2 million light years (or 700,000 parsecs) across.[9] It was first discovered in 1980 that the Bean Galaxy was a radio galaxy.[5] The radio emissions stretch roughly 3 million light years (or 926,000 parsecs) across, based on an angular diameter of 10 arcmin.[9] These radio lobes are created by the galaxy's massive central black hole.[9] This giant radio galaxy is unusual because it is located in a galaxy cluster, which is rare for giant radio galaxies,[9] and it is similar to other radio galaxies such as Inkathazo in both extent and location.[10]
X-ray source
One X-ray source has been discovered in the Bean Galaxy: CXOX J171530.1+643950, which is classified as a radio X-ray source, and was discovered in 2024 in a survey of 3.1 million X-ray sources.[11]