| NGC 4214 | |
|---|---|
 NGC 4214 in Optical and near-infrared, imaged byHubble's Wide Field Camera 3 | |
| Observation data (J2000epoch) | |
| Constellation | Canes Venatici |
| Right ascension | 12h 15m 39.17s[1] |
| Declination | +36° 19′ 36.8″[1] |
| Redshift | 0.000971[1] |
| Heliocentric radial velocity | 291±1 km/s[1] |
| Distance | 9.72 ± 0.82 Mly (2.979 ± 0.252 Mpc)[1] |
| Apparent magnitude (V) | 10.2[1] |
| Characteristics | |
| Type | IAB(s)m[1] |
| Size | ~31,100 ly (9.53 kpc) (estimated)[1] |
| Apparent size (V) | 8.4′ × 6.6′[1] |
| Other designations | |
| KUG 1213+366,IRAS 12131+3636,NGC 4228,UGC 7278,MCG 6-27-42,PGC 39225,CGCG 187-32[1] | |
NGC 4214 is adwarfbarred irregular galaxy located around 10 million light-years[2] away in theconstellationCanes Venatici. It was discovered on 28 April 1785 byGerman-British astronomerWilliam Herschel.[3] NGC 4214 is a member of theM94 Group.
NGC 4214 is both larger and brighter than theSmall Magellanic Cloud[4] as well as astarburst galaxy, with the largest star-forming regions (NGC 4214-I andNGC 4214-II) in the galaxy's center. Of the two,NGC 4214-I contains asuper star cluster rich inWolf–Rayet stars andNGC 4214-II is younger (age less than 3 million years), including a number ofstar clusters andstellar associations.[5]
NGC 4214 also has two older super star clusters, both with an age of 200 million years and respective masses of2.6×105 and1.5×106solar masses.[6]
Two satellites are known to exist around the vicinity of NGC 4214. One is DDO 113, which has an absolute V-band magnitude of −12.2. It stopped star formation around 1 billion years ago. Another, more recently discovered object is MADCASH-2, officially named MADCASH J121007+352635-dw. The name refers to the MADCASH (Magellanic Analog Dwarf Companions and Stellar Halos) project. It is similar to typical ultra-faint dwarf galaxies, with an absolute V-band magnitude of −9.15, except in that it shows evidence of multiple episodes of star formation in its recent past: one around 400 million years ago, and another 1.5 billion years ago.[7]
Onesupernova has been observed in NGC 4214: SN 1954A (type Ib, mag. 9.8) was discovered byPaul Wild on 30 May 1954.[8] [Note: some sources incorrectly list the discovery date as 10 April 1954.][9] In addition, the galaxy has hosted oneluminous blue variable: SN 2010U (type LBV, mag. 16) was discovered byKōichi Itagaki on 5 February 2010.[10][11]
Media related toNGC 4214 at Wikimedia Commons
