NGC 4314

NGC 4314 is a barred spiral galaxy approximately 53[3] million light-years away in the northern constellation of Coma Berenices. It is positioned around 3° to the north and slightly west of the star Gamma Comae Berenices and is visible in a small telescope.[7] The galaxy was discovered by German-born astronomer William Herschel on March 13, 1785.[8] It was labelled as peculiar by Allan Sandage in 1961 because of the unusual structure in the center of the bar.[9] NGC 4314 is a member of the Coma I group of galaxies.[4]

NG 4314
Circumnuclear starbust ring of NGC 4314
Credit: HST/NASA/ESA
Observation data (J2000 epoch)
ConstellationComa Berenices
Right ascension12h 22m 31.978s[1]
Declination+29° 53′ 43.09″[1]
Helio radial velocity983±5 km/s[2]
Distance53.2 ± 2.9 Mly (16.3 ± 0.9 Mpc)[3]
Group or clusterComa I[4]
Apparent magnitude (V)11.4[5]
Characteristics
TypeSB(rs)a[5] or SBa[2]
Apparent size (V)2′.8 × 1′.4[1] (NIR)
Notable featuresCircumnuclear ring
Other designations
IRAS 12200+3010, LEDA 40097, NGC 4314, UGC 7443,[6] PGC 40097[5]

The morphological classification of this galaxy is SBa,[2] which indicates a barred spiral galaxy (SB) with very tightly wound spiral arms (a). It is inclined at an angle of 21° to the line of sight from the Earth, and the primary bar is oriented with a position angle of 158°.[2] The bar extends out to a diameter of 76″ before joining the spiral arms. These trail in 130° arcs out to a radius of 125″ from the nucleus. Outside the nuclear region, the galaxy is considered generally gas-poor, with no H II regions in the outer spiral arms.[9]

There is a prominent ring of star formation about the galactic nucleus with a radius of 9″.[9] 76 open clusters of stars has been found associated with this ring, and these are probably due, at least in part, to Lindblad resonance. Most of these clusters are 15 million years old or less. The current burst of galactic star formation is estimated to have lasted 30 million years. External to the ring, the stars are generally older than within the ring structure, suggesting a previous epoch of star formation.[2]

  • NGC 4134 image by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
  • Circumnuclear starburst ring of NGC 4314 as imaged by the HST. Unrelated objects have been edited out.

See also

References
  1. Skrutskie, M. F.; et al. (2006). "The Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS)". The Astronomical Journal. 131 (2): 1163–1183. Bibcode:2006AJ....131.1163S. doi:10.1086/498708.
  2. Benedict, G. Fritz; et al. (March 2002). "NGC 4314. IV. Photometry of Star Clusters with the Hubble Space Telescope: History of Star Formation in the Vicinity of a Nuclear Ring". The Astronomical Journal. 123 (3): 1411–1432. arXiv:astro-ph/0111599. Bibcode:2002AJ....123.1411B. doi:10.1086/338895. S2CID 53592391.
  3. Ashby, M. L. N.; et al. (September 2011). "The Star Formation Reference Survey. I. Survey Description and Basic Data". Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. 123 (907): 1011. arXiv:1107.2570. Bibcode:2011PASP..123.1011A. doi:10.1086/661920. S2CID 119226030.
  4. Gregory, Stephen A.; Thompson, Laird A. (April 1977). "The Coma i Galaxy Cloud". The Astrophysical Journal. 213: 345–350. Bibcode:1977ApJ...213..345G. doi:10.1086/155160. ISSN 0004-637X.
  5. "NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database". Results for NGC 4314. Retrieved 2007-04-05.
  6. "NGC 4314". SIMBAD. Centre de données astronomiques de Strasbourg. Retrieved 2020-09-20.
  7. James O'Meara, Stephen (2007), Herschel 400 Observing Guide, Cambridge University Press, p. 176, ISBN 978-0521858939
  8. Seligman, Courtney. "New General Catalogue objects: NGC 4300 - 4349". cseligman.com. Retrieved 2020-09-19.
  9. Garcia-Barreto, J. A.; et al. (April 1991). "The nuclear ring of the barred galaxy NGC 4314". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 244 (2): 257–272. Bibcode:1991A&A...244..257G.
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