NGC 4546 — E-S0 in Virgo
E-S0 in Virgo, 3.2 arcminutes across, its light 51 million years old. Measured by HyperLEDA, photographed by Pan-STARRS1. Recorded once.
About NGC 4546
What you are looking at
NGC 4546 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. From edge to edge its visible disc spans about 46,000 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
SIMBAD, the reference database astronomers use, classes it as a Seyfert galaxy: its nucleus is lit by gas falling into its central black hole, though dust hides part of that glow from us. It is cited in 235 scientific papers indexed by SIMBAD, and recorded there under 14 different catalogue designations.
When this light set out
What a telescope records of NGC 4546 is light that left it about 51 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 1,054 km/s (2.4 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 4546 sits within the constellation Virgo. It is best placed on spring evenings: around 9:30 pm in May it stands about 46° 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 4597 (2.3° away on the sky, at least 2,050,000 light-years from it).
By apparent size it is number 461 of the 12,657 galaxies on the Galaxy Origins register.
Measurements
| Catalogue | PGC 41939 |
|---|---|
| Morphological type | E-S0 |
| Angular diameter | 3.15′ |
| Right ascension | 12h35m29.5s |
| Declination | -03°47′35.7″ |
| Constellation | Virgo |
| Inclination | 75.8° |
| Light travel time | 51 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 3.2 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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