NGC 4526
Lenticular galaxy in the constellation Virgo
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NGC 4526 (also listed as NGC 4560) is a lenticular galaxy with an embedded dusty disc, located approximately 55 million light-years from the Solar System[3] in the Virgo constellation and discovered on 13 April 1784 by William Herschel.[6] Herschel observed it again on 28 December 1785, resulting in the galaxy being entered twice into the New General Catalogue.[6]
| NGC 4526 | |
|---|---|
 Supernova SN 1994D (lower left) in the outskirts of NGC 4526's central disk | |
| Observation data (J2000 epoch) | |
| Constellation | Virgo |
| Right ascension | 12h 34m 03.029s[1] |
| Declination | +07° 41′ 56.90″[1] |
| Redshift | 0.002058±0.000017 |
| Heliocentric radial velocity | 617±5 km/s[2] |
| Distance | 55±5 Mly (16.9±1.6 Mpc)[3] 52 Mly (15.8 Mpc)[4] |
| Apparent magnitude (V) | 10.7[2] |
| Characteristics | |
| Type | SAB(s)0°[5] |
| Size | ~114,400 ly (35.07 kpc) (estimated)[2] |
| Apparent size (V) | 7.2′ × 2.4′[2] |
| Other designations | |
| IRAS 12315+0758, NGC 4560, UGC 7718, MCG +01-32-100, PGC 41772, CGCG 042-155[2] | |
The galaxy is seen nearly edge-on. The morphological classification is SAB(s)0°,[5] which indicates a lenticular structure with a weak bar across the center and pure spiral arms without a ring.[7] It belongs to the Virgo Cluster and is one of the brightest known lenticular galaxies.[5] In the galaxy's outer halo, globular cluster orbital velocities[8] indicate abnormal poverty of dark matter: only 43±18% of the mass within 5 effective radii.
The inner nucleus of this galaxy displays a rise in stellar orbital motion that indicates the presence of a central dark mass. The best fit model for the motion of molecular gas in the core region suggests there is a supermassive black hole with about 4.5+4.2
−3.0×108 (450 million) times the mass of the Sun.[9] This is the first object to have its black-hole mass estimated by measuring the rotation of gas molecules around its centre with an astronomical interferometer (in this case the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy).
Supernovae
Two supernovae have been observed in NGC 4526:
- SN 1969E (type unknown, mag. 16) was discovered by Enrique Chavira on 23 March 1969.[10][11][12]
- SN 1994D (Type Ia, mag. 15.2) was discovered independently by the Leuschner Observatory Supernova Search and by Dr. M. Richmond, on 7 March 1994, about two weeks before reaching peak brightness.[13][14] It was caused by the explosion of a white dwarf star composed of carbon and oxygen.[15]
