NGC 4437 — Sc in Virgo
Sc in Virgo, 9.0 arcminutes across, its light 54 million years old. Measured by HyperLEDA, photographed by Pan-STARRS1. Recorded once.
About NGC 4437
NGC 4437, also catalogued as NGC 4517, is a large spiral seen nearly edge-on in Virgo. Its long disc is threaded with dark dust and patches of young stars, and because it is seen side-on, its full length stretches across a large part of a telescope's field.
What you are looking at
NGC 4437 is a late-type spiral: a small central bulge and open, loosely wound arms full of young stars and star-forming gas. 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 142,000 light-years (taking its redshift distance, which for a galaxy this near is approximate), about 1.4 times the width of the Milky Way.
What astronomers have recorded
SIMBAD, the reference database astronomers use, classes it as a galaxy with an active nucleus, powered by its central black hole. It is cited in 313 scientific papers indexed by SIMBAD, and recorded there under 31 different catalogue designations.
When this light set out
What a telescope records of NGC 4437 is light that left it about 54 million years ago; on Earth, the planet had come through its hottest interval since the dinosaurs. The galaxy is moving away from us at about 1,127 km/s (2.5 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
NGC 4437 lies in Virgo. It is best placed on spring evenings: around 9:30 pm in May it stands about 50° 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: NGC 4592 (1.8° away on the sky, at least 1,660,000 light-years from it); UGC 7824 (2.4° away on the sky, at least 2,230,000 light-years from it); NGC 4629 (2.9° away on the sky, at least 2,690,000 light-years from it); NGC 4587 (2.9° away on the sky, at least 2,770,000 light-years from it), and 1 more.
By apparent size it is number 22 of the 12,657 galaxies on the Galaxy Origins register.
Measurements
| Catalogue | PGC 41618 |
|---|---|
| Morphological type | Sc |
| Angular diameter | 9.02′ |
| Right ascension | 12h32m45.5s |
| Declination | +00°06′52.3″ |
| Constellation | Virgo |
| Inclination | 90.0° |
| Light travel time | 54 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 9.0 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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