NGC 4
Galaxy in the constellation Pisces
NGC 4 is a lenticular galaxy with the morphological type of S0-a, located in the constellation of Pisces. NGC 4 was discovered by Albert Marth on 29 November 1864 using a 48-inch reflecting telescope.
01Observational History
NGC 4 was first observed by Albert Marth on 29 November 1864 on the same night NGC 3 was discovered. NGC 4 was described as "extremely faint". NGC 4 is about 4.7 arcminutes northeast of NGC 3 and about 2.9 arcminutes west of a G-type star BD+07 1.
PGC 620
PGC 620 was a galaxy in the Lyon-Meudon Extragalactic Database which designated PGC 620 as NGC 4 because the catalogers didn't realize that Marth could see an object as faint as NGC 4. Marth was using a telescope with a 48-inch aperture, and could see a 16th-magnitude galaxy.
The error in the LEDA database has been corrected and the galaxy was designated as PGC 212468 for NGC 4, with its incorrect identification as PGC 620 noted immediately below as a warning.
02Properties
NGC 4 is a lenticular galaxy with an approximated distance of 406 million light years and an approximated size of 59,000 light years across, both of these having a high degree of uncertainty
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “NGC 4”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- NGC 4 DESI.jpg by DESI Legacy Surveys / Dustin Lang (Perimeter Institute), CC BY 4.0
- NGC 0004 SDSS.jpg by Donald Pelletier, CC BY-SA 4.0
- PGC 620 DESI.jpg by DESI Legacy Surveys / Dustin Lang (Perimeter Institute), CC BY 4.0
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