NGC 4504
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NGC 4504 is a spiral galaxy located in the constellation Virgo, approximately 55 million light years from Earth. It was discovered by William Herschel on March 20, 1789. The galaxy spans about 70,000 light years across and is notable for its low surface brightness arms and a nuclear star cluster.
Background
NGC 4504 has a point source nucleus embedded in a highly elliptical bulge, with a possible small bar within the bulge. Very low surface brightness arms emerge from the bulge, and HII regions are visible in the disk, the largest of which exceed 3 arcseconds across. The galaxy also contains a small bar 0.36 arcminutes long and a ring with a diameter of 0.93 arcminutes. At its nucleus lies a nuclear star cluster with a radius of 4 arcseconds.
The galaxy forms a pair with NGC 4487, located 35 arcminutes away. It is a member of the Messier 104 Group, which includes the Sombrero Galaxy (M104), NGC 4487, UGCA 287, and UGCA 289. A. M. Garcia considers NGC 4504 part of the LGG 293 Group, which also includes NGC 4487 and NGC 4597. The galaxy is part of the Virgo II Groups, a chain of groups extending from the Virgo Cluster.
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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.
- Wikipedia: NGC 4504 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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