| NGC 4314 | |
|---|---|
 Circumnuclear starbust ring of NGC 4314 | |
| Observation data (J2000epoch) | |
| Constellation | Coma Berenices |
| Right ascension | 12h 22m 31.978s[1] |
| Declination | +29° 53′ 43.09″[1] |
| Heliocentric radial velocity | 983±5 km/s[2] |
| Distance | 53.2 ± 2.9 Mly (16.3 ± 0.9 Mpc)[3] |
| Group orcluster | Coma I[4] |
| Apparent magnitude (V) | 11.4[5] |
| Characteristics | |
| Type | SB(rs)a[5] or SBa[2] |
| Apparent size (V) | 2′.8 × 1′.4[1] (NIR) |
| Notable features | Circumnuclear ring |
| Other designations | |
| IRAS 12200+3010, LEDA 40097,NGC 4314,UGC 7443,[6]PGC 40097[5] | |
NGC 4314 is abarred spiral galaxy approximately 53[3] millionlight-years away in the northernconstellation ofComa Berenices. It is positioned around 3° to the north and slightly west of the starGamma Comae Berenices and is visible in a small telescope.[7] The galaxy was discovered by German-born astronomerWilliam Herschel on March 13, 1785.[8] It was labelled as peculiar byAllan Sandage in 1961 because of the unusual structure in the center of the bar.[9] NGC 4314 is a member of theComa Igroup of galaxies.[4]
Themorphological classification of this galaxy is SBa,[2] which indicates abarred spiral galaxy (SB) with very tightly woundspiral 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 aposition angle of 158°.[2] The bar extends out to a diameter of76″ before joining the spiral arms. These trail in 130° arcs out to a radius of125″ from the nucleus. Outside the nuclear region, the galaxy is considered generally gas-poor, with noH II regions in the outer spiral arms.[9]
There is a prominent ring ofstar formation about the galactic nucleus with a radius of9″.[9] 76open clusters of stars have been found associated with this ring, and these are probably due, at least in part, toLindblad 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]
Media related toNGC 4314 at Wikimedia Commons
