NGC 4874
Galaxy in the constellation Coma Berenices
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
NGC 4874 is a supergiant elliptical galaxy in the constellation of Coma Berenices. It was discovered on 11 April 1785 by German-British astronomer William Herschel, who catalogued it as a bright patch of nebulous feature.[5] The second-brightest galaxy within the northern Coma Cluster, it is located at a distance of about 97 megaparsecs (316,000,000 light-years) from Earth.[6]
| NGC 4874 | |
|---|---|
NGC 4874 dominates this picture created from optical and near-infrared exposures taken with the Wide Field Channel of Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys. (Credit: ESA/Hubble, NASA) | |
| Observation data (J2000 epoch) | |
| Constellation | Coma Berenices |
| Right ascension | 12h 59m 35.709s[1] |
| Declination | +27° 57′ 33.80″[1] |
| Redshift | 0.023907±0.00000667[2] |
| Heliocentric radial velocity | 7,167±2 km/s[2] |
| Distance | 315.73 ± 6.41 Mly (96.804 ± 1.966 Mpc)[2] |
| Group or cluster | Coma Cluster |
| Apparent magnitude (V) | 11.4[3] |
| Apparent magnitude (B) | 13.7[4] |
| Characteristics | |
| Type | cD; Di |
| Size | 79.792 to 82.79 kpc (260,250 to 270,020 ly) (diameter; D25.0 B-band and 2MASS K-band total isophotes[2] |
| Apparent size (V) | 1.9′ × 1.9′[2] |
| Other designations | |
| 2MASX J12593570+2757338, UGC 8103, LEDA 44628, MCG +05-31-070, PGC 44628, CGCG 160-231, SDSS J125935.70+275733.3[2] | |
Characteristics
The galaxy is surrounded by an immense stellar halo that extends up to one million light-years in diameter.[7] It is also enveloped by a huge cloud of interstellar medium that is currently being heated by the action of infalling material from its central supermassive black hole. A jet of highly energetic plasma extends out to 1,700 light-years from its center. The galaxy has 18,700±2,260 globular clusters.
Supernovae
Three supernovae have been observed in NGC 4874:
- SN 1968B (type unknown, mag. 17.4) was discovered by Fritz Zwicky on 3 February 1968.[8][9]
- SN 1981G (Type Ia, mag. 15) was discovered by Miklós Lovas on 2 June 1981.[10][11]
- SN 2025ilo (Type Ib, mag. 20.6) was discovered by A. Horti-David, K. Sarneczky, and J. Vinko on 26 April 2025.[12]
