NGC 4425 — S0-a in Virgo
S0-a in Virgo, 3.1 arcminutes across, its light 91 million years old. Measured by HyperLEDA, photographed by Pan-STARRS1. Recorded once.
About NGC 4425
What you are looking at
NGC 4425 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. We see it almost exactly edge-on, so its whole disc appears as one thin band of light, with dust showing as a dark line along its length. From edge to edge its visible disc spans about 81,000 light-years, about 83% of the Milky Way’s width.
What astronomers have recorded
SIMBAD, the reference database astronomers use, classes it as a member of a group of galaxies. It is cited in 200 scientific papers indexed by SIMBAD, and recorded there under 19 different catalogue designations.
When this light set out
Its light has been travelling for about 91 million years. When it left, dinosaurs were at their peak. The galaxy is moving away from us at about 1,892 km/s (4.2 million mph), carried by the expansion of the universe.
Finding it in the sky
NGC 4425 lies in Virgo. It is best placed on spring evenings: around 9:30 pm in May it stands about 63° high in the south, seen from the middle of the United States.
Its neighbours
It lies in the direction of the Virgo Cluster and at a matching speed, which places it among the cluster’s more than a thousand galaxies, the nearest large cluster to the Milky Way. At almost the same distance from us, and so its neighbours in space as well as on the sky: NGC 4461 (0.6° away on the sky, at least 1,000,000 light-years from it); NGC 4476 (0.8° away on the sky, at least 1,230,000 light-years from it); NGC 4305 (1.3° away on the sky, at least 1,990,000 light-years from it); NGC 4474 (1.5° away on the sky, at least 2,340,000 light-years from it), and 8 more.
By apparent size it is number 483 of the 12,657 galaxies on the Galaxy Origins register.
Measurements
| Catalogue | PGC 40816 |
|---|---|
| Morphological type | S0-a |
| Angular diameter | 3.08′ |
| Right ascension | 12h27m13.3s |
| Declination | +12°44′05.3″ |
| Constellation | Virgo |
| Inclination | 84.2° |
| Light travel time | 91 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 3.1 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