NGC 4856 — S0-a in Virgo
S0-a in Virgo, 4.3 arcminutes across, its light 64 million years old. Measured by HyperLEDA, photographed by Pan-STARRS1. Recorded once.
About NGC 4856
What you are looking at
NGC 4856 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 80,000 light-years (taking its redshift distance, which for a galaxy this near is approximate), about 81% 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 86 scientific papers indexed by SIMBAD, and recorded there under 10 different catalogue designations.
When this light set out
What a telescope records of NGC 4856 is light that left it about 64 million years ago; on Earth, an asteroid had ended the age of dinosaurs. The galaxy is moving away from us at about 1,340 km/s (3.0 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 4856 lies in Virgo. It is best placed on spring evenings: around 9:30 pm in May it stands about 35° 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 4984 (2.4° away on the sky, at least 2,650,000 light-years from it); NGC 4722 (2.6° away on the sky, at least 2,860,000 light-years from it); NGC 4723 (2.7° away on the sky, at least 3,030,000 light-years from it).
By apparent size it is number 198 of the 12,657 galaxies on the Galaxy Origins register.
Measurements
| Catalogue | PGC 44582 |
|---|---|
| Morphological type | S0-a |
| Angular diameter | 4.26′ |
| Right ascension | 12h59m21.3s |
| Declination | -15°02′31.8″ |
| Constellation | Virgo |
| Inclination | 90.0° |
| Light travel time | 64 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 4.3 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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