NGC Objects Codexery

NGC 4

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NGC 4

RubinObs/NOIRLab/SLAC/NSF/DOE/AURA · CC BY 4.0

NGC 4 is a lenticular galaxy of morphological type S0-a, located in the constellation Pisces. It was discovered by Albert Marth on 29 November 1864 using a 48-inch reflecting telescope, on the same night he discovered NGC 3. The galaxy is notable for a historical identification error in the Lyon-Meudon Extragalactic Database, where it was initially misidentified as PGC 620 before being corrected to PGC 212468.

NGC 4
NGC 4. Image: PanSTARRS Science Consortium · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Background

NGC 4 was first observed by Albert Marth on 29 November 1864, the same night he discovered NGC 3. Marth described the object as 'extremely faint'. It lies about 4.7 arcminutes northeast of NGC 3 and about 2.9 arcminutes west of a G-type star designated BD+07 1. The galaxy is a lenticular type S0-a, with an approximated distance of 406 million light years and an approximated size of 59,000 light years across, both figures carrying a high degree of uncertainty.

NGC 4 DESI
NGC 4 DESI. Image: DESI Legacy Surveys / Dustin Lang (Perimeter Institute) · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

A notable error occurred in the Lyon-Meudon Extragalactic Database (LEDA), where the catalogers initially designated PGC 620 as NGC 4, not realizing that Marth, using a 48-inch aperture telescope, could see an object as faint as a 16th-magnitude galaxy. This error has since been corrected, and the galaxy is now designated as PGC 212468 for NGC 4, with the incorrect identification as PGC 620 noted as a warning.

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Test yourself

Three questions drawn from this entry’s sources. Pick an answer to check it.

1. Who discovered NGC 4?

Correct.

Not quite. The answer is Albert Marth.

From the source: “NGC 4 was discovered by Albert Marth on 29 November 1864 using a 48-inch reflecting telescope.”

2. In which constellation is NGC 4 located?

Correct.

Not quite. The answer is Pisces.

From the source: “NGC 4 is a lenticular galaxy with the morphological type of S0-a, located in the constellation of Pisces.”

3. In what year was NGC 4 discovered?

Correct.

Not quite. The answer is 1864.

From the source: “NGC 4 was discovered by Albert Marth on 29 November 1864 using a 48-inch reflecting telescope.”

Answers checked against the source article

Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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