NGC 4958 — S0 in Virgo
S0 in Virgo, 4.7 arcminutes across, its light 62 million years old. Measured by HyperLEDA, photographed by Pan-STARRS1. Recorded once.
About NGC 4958
What you are looking at
NGC 4958 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. Its disc is turned almost exactly side-on to us: the galaxy appears as a narrow blade of light, and its dust as a dark seam running along it. From edge to edge its visible disc spans about 85,000 light-years (taking its redshift distance, which for a galaxy this near is approximate), close to the width of the Milky Way.
What astronomers have recorded
SIMBAD, the reference database astronomers use, classes it as a Seyfert galaxy: its nucleus shines brightly with the light of gas falling into its central black hole. It is cited in 110 scientific papers indexed by SIMBAD, and recorded there under 13 different catalogue designations.
When this light set out
Its light has been travelling for about 62 million years. When it left, an asteroid had ended the age of dinosaurs. The galaxy is moving away from us at about 1,290 km/s (2.9 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 4958 sits within the constellation Virgo. It is best placed on spring evenings: around 9:30 pm in May it stands about 42° 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 4948A (0.2° away on the sky, at least 250,000 light-years from it); NGC 4948 (0.2° away on the sky, at least 250,000 light-years from it); NGC 4951 (1.5° away on the sky, at least 1,660,000 light-years from it); NGC 4818 (2.3° away on the sky, at least 2,470,000 light-years from it), and 3 more.
By apparent size it is number 144 of the 12,657 galaxies on the Galaxy Origins register.
Measurements
| Catalogue | PGC 45313 |
|---|---|
| Morphological type | S0 |
| Angular diameter | 4.74′ |
| Right ascension | 13h05m48.9s |
| Declination | -08°01′12.8″ |
| Constellation | Virgo |
| Inclination | 90.0° |
| Light travel time | 62 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 4.7 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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