This landscape, not particularly exciting at first sight, can be, for the patient observer, a treasure trove of interesting cosmic objects.
It represents the southern clump of the Virgo Cluster, the so called Virgo B sub-cluster, centered on M49 and distant a 60 Mly. Most of the prominent objects in this picture are part of this structure and some are described below.
But different stories are included as well: close to the upper edge is the NGC4410 group, located 340Mly away. And the nearby dense cloud of PGC objects around of PGC1354372 is part of the Abell1541 Galaxy Cluster, 1250 Mly away. The NGC4365 group, in the lower right corner, is also located 20 Mly behind the Virgo cluster, and displaying interesting features. Also the isolated galaxy NGC4492 (left of M49) is in the background and not bound to the Virgo Cluster.
M49Messier 49 (NGC4472) is a giant elliptical galaxy about 56 million light-years away in the constellation of Virgo, discovered by Charles Messier in 1777.
As an elliptical galaxy, M49 has the physical form of a radio galaxy, but in reality it has the radio emission of a normal galaxy.
The nucleus of this galaxy is emitting X-rays, suggesting the likely presence of a supermassive black hole with an estimated mass of 5.65 × 108 solar masses, or 565 million times the mass of the Sun (M☉).
This galaxy has many globular clusters: estimated to be about 5900. This is far more than the roughly 200 orbiting the Milky Way, but dwarfed by the 13450 orbiting the super-giant elliptical galaxy M87. On average, the globular clusters of M49 are about 10 billion years old. Between 2000 and 2009, strong evidence for a stellar mass black hole was discovered in one. A second candidate was announced in 2011.
Messier 49 was the first member of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies to be discovered. It is the most luminous member of that cluster and more luminous than any galaxy closer to the Earth. This galaxy lays at the center of the Virgo B sub-cluster, located south of the center of the Virgo Cluster, represented by M87. A more complete description of the Virgo sub-clusters can be found
here.
M49 is gravitationally interacting with the dwarf irregular galaxy PGC41258, visible in the image just south east of it.
NGC4535NGC4535 is a barred spiral galaxy located some 54 million light years from Earth. Its galactic plane is inclined by an angle of 43° to the line of sight from the Earth. The morphological classification of NGC 4535 in the De Vaucouleurs system is SAB(s)c, which indicates a bar structure across the core (SAB), no ring (s), and loosely wound spiral arms (c). The inner part of the galaxy has two spiral arms, which branch into multiple arms further away. The small nucleus has a spectrum resembling an HII.
During 1999, the Hubble Space Telescope was used to observe Cepheid variable stars in NGC 4535 that allowed precise distance estimations.
It has been already photographed by JWST, and we paste here below a couple of images taken in the near and mid infrared.
Picture 1: NGC4535 images by JWST, in NIR (left) and MIR (right)
Author Meli Thev - Own work+NASA/ESA/CSA JWST NIRCam and MIRI
NGC4526NGC 4526 (also listed as NGC 4560) is a lenticular galaxy with an embedded dusty disc, located approximately 55 million light-years away.
The galaxy is seen nearly edge-on. It is one of the brightest known lenticular galaxies. In the galaxy's outer halo, globular cluster orbital velocities indicate abnormal poverty of dark matter.
The inner nucleus of this galaxy displays a rise in stellar orbital motion that indicates the presence of a central supermassive black hole with about 450 million Sun masses.
NGC4365, behind the Virgo Cluster, and the globular clusters bridgeNGC 4365 is an elliptical galaxy 74 million light year away from earth. It is the central galaxy of
W' cloud, a cloud of galaxies about 20 million light year behind (further from us than) the Virgo supercluster.
NGC 4365 has a kinematically distinct, counter-rotating stellar core region, which provides strong evidence for the theory that elliptical galaxies grow through mergers. The mean age of its stellar population is greater than 12 billion years.
There is a
stream of globular clusters connecting NGC 4365 to the neighboring compact S0 galaxy IC3256 (NGC4342). It appears that NGC 4365 is stripping globular clusters and stars from its neighbor via tidal interaction.
NGC4469NGC 4469 is a nearly edge-on spiral galaxy located about 55 million light-years away.
It is also classified as a LINER galaxy.
NGC 4469 has an X or peanut-shaped bulge, betraying the presence of a bar which generates such structures.It has dust lanes that can, with a little of imagination, be seen also the the closeup from the main image shown below.
NGC4488It is a lenticular galaxy located about 60 million light-years away, member of the Virgo Cluster.
NGC4488 has an unusual rectangular shaped structure similar to the galaxy PGC74886 in Eridanus. The galaxy does not have an inner disk. It also has two arms coming off diagonally opposite sides suggesting that it has had a gravitational interaction with another galaxy.
NGC4410 Group, 340 Mly awayClose to the upper right edge, it is a group of interacting galaxies located 340 million light years away.
The group includes at least 11 members, connected by tidal streams.
NGC4492 not member of Virgo ClusterNGC4492 is a spiral galaxy located about 90 million light-years away. NGC 4492 was discovered by astronomer William Herschel on December 28, 1785. It was rediscovered by astronomer Arnold Schwassmann on January 23, 1900, and was listed as IC 3438.
NGC 4492 lies in the direction of the Virgo Cluster. However, it is not considered to be a member of it because of its distance and its radial velocity that indicates that it is not gravitationally bound to the cluster but is rather expanding away from it.
(most of the details are excerpted by Wikipedia and Simbad DB)
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