NGC 4220 — S0-a in Canes Venatici
S0-a in Canes Venatici, 3.4 arcminutes across, its light 44 million years old. Measured by HyperLEDA, photographed by Pan-STARRS1. Recorded once.
About NGC 4220
What you are looking at
NGC 4220 is a lenticular galaxy: a disc galaxy that has largely used up the gas it needs to form new stars, so its disc is smooth and has no spiral arms. Its disc is turned almost exactly side-on to us: the galaxy appears as a narrow blade of light, and its dust as a dark seam running along it. From edge to edge its visible disc spans about 43,000 light-years (taking its redshift distance, which for a galaxy this near is approximate), about half the width of the Milky Way.
What astronomers have recorded
One supernova has been recorded in it: SN 1983O. It is cited in 168 scientific papers indexed by SIMBAD, and recorded there under 15 different catalogue designations.
When this light set out
The light that reaches us from NGC 4220 today set out about 44 million years ago, when the planet had come through its hottest interval since the dinosaurs. The galaxy is moving away from us at about 917 km/s (2.1 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 4220 sits within the constellation Canes Venatici. It is best placed on spring evenings: around 9:30 pm in May it stands about 82° high in the north, close to overhead, 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: NGC 4218 (0.3° away on the sky, at least 200,000 light-years from it); UGC 7392 (0.7° away on the sky, at least 560,000 light-years from it); NGC 4217 (0.8° away on the sky, at least 610,000 light-years from it); NGC 4346 (1.5° away on the sky, at least 1,170,000 light-years from it), and 6 more.
By apparent size it is number 402 of the 12,657 galaxies on the Galaxy Origins register.
Measurements
| Catalogue | PGC 39285 |
|---|---|
| Morphological type | S0-a |
| Angular diameter | 3.35′ |
| Right ascension | 12h16m11.7s |
| Declination | +47°52′59.8″ |
| Constellation | Canes Venatici |
| Inclination | 90.0° |
| Light travel time | 44 million years |
| Bar | not recorded |
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 3.4 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.
Take this galaxy — $1,290 Browse the Collection