NGC 4700 — SBc in Virgo
SBc in Virgo, 3.3 arcminutes across, its light 68 million years old. Measured by HyperLEDA, photographed by Pan-STARRS1. Recorded once.
About NGC 4700
What you are looking at
NGC 4700 is a late-type spiral: a small central bulge and open, loosely wound arms full of young stars and star-forming gas. A bar of stars runs straight across its centre, as one does across the centre of the Milky Way. 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 64,000 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 galaxy with an active nucleus, powered by its central black hole. It is cited in 108 scientific papers indexed by SIMBAD, and recorded there under 22 different catalogue designations.
When this light set out
Its light has been travelling for about 68 million years. When it left, dinosaurs were at their peak. The galaxy is moving away from us at about 1,408 km/s (3.2 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 4700 lies in Virgo. It is best placed on spring evenings: around 9:30 pm in May it stands about 39° 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 4781 (1.6° away on the sky, at least 1,840,000 light-years from it); NGC 4784 (1.6° away on the sky, at least 1,840,000 light-years from it); NGC 4790 (1.8° away on the sky, at least 2,150,000 light-years from it); NGC 4723 (1.9° away on the sky, at least 2,220,000 light-years from it), and 4 more.
By apparent size it is number 424 of the 12,657 galaxies on the Galaxy Origins register.
Measurements
| Catalogue | PGC 43330 |
|---|---|
| Morphological type | SBc |
| Angular diameter | 3.27′ |
| Right ascension | 12h49m08.1s |
| Declination | -11°24′35.4″ |
| Constellation | Virgo |
| Inclination | 90.0° |
| Light travel time | 68 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 3.3 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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