Galaxy Messier 49
History
The galaxy was discovered by Charles Messier on 19 February 1771. He described it as «difficult to see in a 3.5 foot [focal length] telescope». It was the first and largest galaxy in the Virgo Cluster that he had discovered. [4, 196]
Physical Properties
M 49 is an elliptical Seyfert 2 galaxy of the morphological type E2, contains around 200 billion mostly old stars. The last stars formed here about six billion years ago - before the birth of our sun. The diameter is 157'000 light years. The measured distances range from 16.8 Mpc to 19.28 Mpc (approximately 55 to 63 million light years). A supermassive black hole with about 500 million solar masses is up to mischief in the extremely active core and is a powerful source of X-rays. M 49 is also rich in globular clusters. About 6000 were counted here. The Milky Way has just 150 of them. The average age of globular clusters is around 10 billion years. [145, 273]
| Designation | NGC 4472 |
| Type | Gx (E2) |
| Right Ascension | 12h 29m 46.7s |
| Declination | +08° 00' 00" |
| Diameter | 10.2 × 8.3 arcmin |
| Photographic (blue) magnitude | 9.4 mag |
| Visual magnitude | 8.4 mag |
| Surface brightness | 13.2 mag·arcmin-2 |
| Position Angle | 155° |
| Redshift | 0.003326 |
| Distance derived from z | 14.05 Mpc |
| Metric Distance | 16.000 Mpc |
| Dreyer Description | vB, L, R, mbM, r |
| Identification, Remarks | M 49, UGC 7629, MCG 1-32-83, Arp 134, VCC 1226, CGCG 42-134 |
Further Galaxies Nearby
Looking in the direction of M 49 there are other much smaller and fainter galaxies, which are listed here in tabular form only for the sake of shape.
| Name | RA | Dec | Type | bMag | vMag | Dim | Dreyer Description | Identification, Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NGC 4434 | 12 27 36.6 | +08 09 16 | Gx (E0) | 13.0 | 12.2 | 1.4 × 1.4 | pF, vS | UGC 7571, MCG 1-32-69, CGCG 42-115, VCC 1025 |
| NGC 4464 | 12 29 21.2 | +08 09 25 | Gx (E) | 13.5 | 12.5 | 0.9 × 0.7 | F, vS, R, pgbM | UGC 7619, MCG 1-32-78, CGCG 42-128, VCC 1178 |
| NGC 4465 | 12 29 23.5 | +08 01 34 | Gx (Sc) | 15.2 | 14.5 | 0.5 × 0.3 | vF, v dif | CGCG 42-127, VCC 1182 |
| NGC 4466 | 12 29 30.6 | +07 41 49 | Gx (Sab) | 14.4 | 13.5 | 1.1 × 0.3 | vF, pS, iR | UGC 7626, MCG 1-32-81, CGCG 42-131, VCC 1193 |
| NGC 4467 | 12 29 30.3 | +07 59 34 | Gx (E2) | 14.8 | 13.8 | 0.4 × 0.3 | vF, vS, lE | MCG 1-32-80, CGCG 42-130, ARAK 369, VCC 1192 |
| NGC 4470 | 12 29 37.9 | +07 49 26 | Gx (Sa) | 13.1 | 12.1 | 1.3 × 0.9 | F, pL, iR, bM | UGC 7627, MCG 1-32-82, IRAS 12270+0806, VCC 1205, CGCG 42-132 |
| NGC 4471 | 12 29 42.0 | +07 53 46 | * | 14.4 | vF, vS (not found by d'A) | |||
| NGC 4488 | 12 30 51.3 | +08 21 35 | Gx (SB0-a) | 13.1 | 12.2 | 4.1 × 1.7 | vF, vS, lE | UGC 7653, MCG 2-32-104, CGCG 70-137, VCC 1318 |
| NGC 4492 | 12 30 59.7 | +08 04 41 | Gx (Sa) | 13.2 | 12.6 | 1.7 × 1.6 | pF, pL, vglbM, 2 st nr | IC 3438, UGC 7656, MCG 1-32-89, CGCG 42-141, VCC 1330 |
Finder Chart
M 49 is located in the constellation Virgo about halfway between the stars Vindemiatrix (π Virginis) and ν Virginis. The best way to see the galaxy is from February to June.
Visual Observation
Pending ...