NGC 474
Galaxy in the constellation Pisces
NGC 474 is a large lenticular galaxy in the constellation Pisces. Its velocity with respect to the cosmic microwave background is 2,001±23 km/s, which corresponds to a Hubble distance of 96.2 ± 6.8 Mly (29.51 ± 2.09 Mpc). Additionally, 13 non-redshift measurements give a similar mean distance of 91.50 ± 6.69 Mly (28.054 ± 2.050 Mpc). It was discovered by German-British astronomer William Herschel on 13 December 1784.
NGC 474 is known to possess tidal shells and tidal tails, although their origins remain unclear. One possible explanation is that NGC 474 interacted with a galaxy several billion years ago.
01Structure
The origins of the spectacular tidal features around NGC 474 have been extensively studied, and some possible explanations have been published. The authors of one study argued that the tidal tails were formed because of a collision with a galaxy 2 billion years ago. The same study also stated that NGC 474 is absorbing gas from its neighbor, NGC 470, since the ancient collision. In another model, the tidal shells can be explained by a gas-rich spiral galaxy colliding with NGC 474 twice, before finally merging. NGC 474 is moving away from the Sun at a rate of 2412 km/s due to dark energy.
02Supernova
One supernova has been observed in NGC 474: SN 2017fgc (Type Ia, mag. 17.3239) was discovered by the Distance Less Than 40 Mpc Survey (DLT40) on 11 July 2017. It was located at a considerable distance (~18.90±0.01 kpc) from the galactic nucleus.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “NGC 474”, 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:
- Hubble ngc474 1 gapfilled flat final.jpg by Credit: NASA, ESA, and D. Carter (Liverpool John Moores University); Image processing: G. Kober (NASA Goddard/Catholic University of America), Public domain
- Elliptical galaxy NGC 474.jpg by DES/DOE/Fermilab/NCSA & CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA Acknowledgments: Image processing: DES, Jen Miller (Gemini Observatory/NSF's NOIRLab), Travis Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage), Mahdi Zamani & Davide de Martin, CC BY 4.0
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