Messier 58
A barred spiral galaxy and one of the brightest in the Virgo Cluster.
Messier 58 (also cataloged as M58 and NGC 4579) is an intermediate barred spiral galaxy featuring a faint inner ring, situated in the constellation Virgo about 68 million light-years away. It ranks among the brightest galaxies in the Virgo Cluster and is one of only four barred spirals listed in Messier's catalog. Following its discovery in 1779, it likely held the title of the most distant known object until the New General Catalogue appeared in the 1880s, and later until redshift measurements were published in the 1920s.
Charles Messier first spotted M58 on April 15, 1779, alongside the elliptical galaxies M59 and M60, while tracking the Comet of 1779. He noted it on his chart near the star Epsilon Virginis, describing it as a very faint nebula that vanished under the faintest light used to illuminate his micrometer wires. In 1833, John Herschel contradicted this, calling it a very bright galaxy, especially toward its center. Similar descriptions came from John Dreyer and William Henry Smyth, who saw it as bright, mottled, irregularly round, and much brighter toward the middle.
Like many Virgo Cluster spirals, M58 is an anemic galaxy with low star formation, limited to its optical disk, and contains relatively little neutral hydrogen, also clumped within the disk. This gas deficiency likely stems from interactions with the cluster's intracluster medium. The galaxy hosts a low-luminosity active galactic nucleus, possibly with a starburst and a supermassive black hole of about 70 million solar masses. It is one of the few galaxies known to have an ultra-compact nuclear ring (UCNR)—a tiny ring of star-forming regions around its center, earning it the nickname "ring bearer galaxy" from the YouTube program "Deep Sky videos."
Two supernovae have been observed in M58. SN 1988A, a Type II event reaching magnitude 13.5, was discovered on January 18, 1988, by Kaoru Ikeya, Robert Evans, Christian Pollas, and Shingo Horiguchi, located 40 arcseconds south of the galaxy's center. SN 1989M, a Type Ia supernova peaking at magnitude 12.2, was found by Givi N. Kimeridze on June 28, 1989, positioned 33 arcseconds north and 44 arcseconds west of the nucleus.
- Designations
- M58, NGC 4579
- Type
- intermediate barred spiral galaxy with a weak inner ring structure
- Constellation
- Virgo
- Distance
- approximately 68 million light-years
- Discoverer
- Charles Messier
- Discovery date
- April 15, 1779
- Notable feature
- one of four barred spiral galaxies in Messier's catalogue
Lore & Background
Charles Messier discovered Messier 58, along with the elliptical galaxies Messier 59 and Messier 60, on April 15, 1779. M58 was reported on the chart of the Comet of 1779 as it was almost on the same parallel as the star Epsilon Virginis. Messier described M58 as a very faint nebula in Virgo which would disappear in the slightest amount of light he used to illuminate the micrometer wires. This description was later contradicted by John Herschel's observations in 1833 where he described it as a very bright galaxy, especially towards the middle. Herschel's observations were also similar to the descriptions of both John Dreyer and William Henry Smyth who said that M58 was a bright galaxy, mottled, irregularly round and very much brighter toward the middle.
Like many other spiral galaxies of the Virgo Cluster (e.g. Messier 90), Messier 58 is an anemic galaxy with low star formation activity concentrated within the galaxy's optical disk, and relatively little neutral hydrogen, also located inside its disk, concentrated in clumps, compared with other galaxies of similar morphological type. This deficiency of gas is believed to be caused by interactions with Virgo's intracluster medium. Messier 58 has a low-luminosity active galactic nucleus, where a starburst may be present as well as a supermassive black hole with a mass of around 70 million solar masses. It is also one of the very few galaxies known to possess a UCNR (ultra-compact nuclear ring), a series of star-forming regions located in a very small ring around the center of the galaxy, leading to its being dubbed the 'ring bearer galaxy' by the popular astronomy YouTube program 'Deep Sky videos'.
Reader's Guide
Messier 58 holds significance as one of the brightest galaxies in the Virgo Cluster and as one of only four barred spiral galaxies in Messier's catalogue. Its discovery by Charles Messier in 1779, alongside Messier 59 and Messier 60, marked an early step in cataloguing deep-sky objects. Notably, from 1779 it was arguably the farthest known astronomical object until the New General Catalogue in the 1880s and the publishing of redshift values in the 1920s. The galaxy's early observational history includes a dispute: Messier described it as a very faint nebula, while later observers John Herschel, John Dreyer, and William Henry Smyth described it as bright and mottled. Its characteristics include being an anemic galaxy with low star formation and a deficiency of neutral hydrogen, likely due to interactions with the Virgo intracluster medium. It hosts a low-luminosity active galactic nucleus, a possible starburst, a supermassive black hole of about 70 million solar masses, and an ultra-compact nuclear ring, which earned it the nickname 'ring bearer galaxy' from the YouTube program 'Deep Sky videos'. Two supernovae have been observed in M58: SN 1988A (Type II, mag. 13.5) discovered by Kaoru Ikeya, Robert Evans, Christian Pollas and Shingo Horiguchi on January 18, 1988, and SN 1989M (Type Ia, mag. 12.2) discovered by Givi N. Kimeridze on June 28, 1989.
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