Galaxy Messier 49

Messier 49
Messier 49: Image taken by Hubble Space Telescope. © ESA/Hubble & NASA [273]

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]

Revised+Historic NGC/IC Version 22/9, © 2022 Dr. Wolfgang Steinicke [277]
Designation NGC 4472
Type Gx (E2)
Right Ascension (J2000.0) 12h 29m 46.7s
Declination (J2000.0) +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 (z) 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.

Revised+Historic NGC/IC Version 22/9, © 2022 Dr. Wolfgang Steinicke [277]
Name RA Dec Type bMag vMag B-V SB Dim PA z D(z) MD Dreyer Description Identification, Remarks
NGC 4434 12 27 36.6 +08 09 16 Gx (E0) 13.0 12.2 0.8 12.8 1.4 × 1.4 0.003572 15.09 21.990 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 1.0 12.2 0.9 × 0.7 171 0.004146 17.51 15.350 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 0.7 12.3 0.5 × 0.3 95 0.024634 104.0 vF, v dif CGCG 42-127, VCC 1182
NGC 4466 12 29 30.6 +07 41 49 Gx (Sab) 14.4 13.5 0.9 12.2 1.1 × 0.3 101 0.002512 10.61 29.700 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 1.0 13.9 0.4 × 0.3 45 0.004747 20.05 16.370 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 1.0 12.1 1.3 × 0.9 0 0.007809 32.98 15.830 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 0.9 13.9 4.1 × 1.7 176 0.003242 13.69 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 0.6 13.5 1.7 × 1.6 90 0.005804 24.52 16.800 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.

Finder Chart Galaxy Messier 49
Galaxy Messier 49 in constellation Virgo. Charts created using SkySafari 6 Pro and STScI Digitized Sky Survey. Limiting magnitudes: Constellation chart ~6.5 mag, DSS2 close-ups ~20 mag. [149, 160]

More Objects Nearby (±15°)

References