NGC 4214 — I in Canes Venatici
I in Canes Venatici, 6.8 arcminutes across, its light 14 million years old. Measured by HyperLEDA, photographed by Pan-STARRS1. Recorded once.
About NGC 4214
NGC 4214 is a dwarf irregular galaxy undergoing a burst of star formation. Hubble images show young star clusters and glowing clouds of hydrogen scattered across it, and its nearness makes it a valuable laboratory for how stars form in small galaxies.
What you are looking at
NGC 4214 is an irregular galaxy, with no ordered shape, rich in gas and in young stars. It is tilted about 44° to our line of sight, enough to show both the shape of its arms and the depth of its disc. From edge to edge its visible disc spans about 28,000 light-years (taking its redshift distance, which for a galaxy this near is approximate), about a quarter the width of the Milky Way.
What astronomers have recorded
SIMBAD, the reference database astronomers use, classes it as a starburst galaxy, forming new stars far faster than the Milky Way does. It is cited in 1,033 scientific papers indexed by SIMBAD, and recorded there under 31 different catalogue designations.
When this light set out
The light that reaches us from NGC 4214 today set out about 14 million years ago, when grasslands were spreading across the continents. The galaxy is moving away from us at about 292 km/s (0.7 million mph), carried by the expansion of the universe. For a galaxy this close, its own motion through space is a large share of that speed, so the distance worked out from it is approximate; distances measured from individual stars in it can differ.
Finding it in the sky
In the sky, NGC 4214 sits within the constellation Canes Venatici. It is best placed on spring evenings: around 9:30 pm in May it stands about 86° high in the south, seen from the middle of the United States.
Its neighbours
At almost the same distance from us, and so its neighbours in space as well as on the sky: UGC 7605 (2.7° away on the sky, at least 660,000 light-years from it); UGC 7599 (2.7° away on the sky, at least 670,000 light-years from it).
By apparent size it is number 52 of the 12,657 galaxies on the Galaxy Origins register.
Measurements
| Catalogue | PGC 39225 |
|---|---|
| Morphological type | I |
| Angular diameter | 6.79′ |
| Right ascension | 12h15m39.4s |
| Declination | +36°19′35.0″ |
| Constellation | Canes Venatici |
| Inclination | 43.7° |
| Light travel time | 14 million years |
| Bar | yes, from the catalogue |
Check every figure above in the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database
What is sold
A print of this galaxy and the record of the calculation, once. When it sells it leaves the register and is not offered again. We assign no names and no ownership — nobody can sell you those.
At 6.8 arcminutes this is a Exceptional galaxy, which is the tier where a real photograph shows clear structure and dust lanes. The tier comes from the measured diameter, not from a price list.
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