Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Virgo (Vir)  ·  Contains:  IC 3064  ·  NGC 4206  ·  NGC 4216  ·  NGC 4222

Image of the day 05/06/2016

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
NGC 4216, Samuel
NGC 4216
Powered byPixInsight

NGC 4216

Image of the day 05/06/2016

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
NGC 4216, Samuel
NGC 4216
Powered byPixInsight

NGC 4216

Equipment

Loading...

Acquisition details

Loading...

Description

NGC 4216 is a metal-rich intermediate spiral galaxy located not far from the center of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies, roughly 55 million light-years away. It is seen nearly edge-on.

It is one of the largest and brightest spiral galaxies of the Virgo Cluster, with an absolute magnitude that has been estimated to be -22 (i.e.: brighter than the Andromeda Galaxy), and like most spiral galaxies of this cluster shows a deficiency of neutral hydrogen that's concentrated within the galaxy's optical disk and has a low surface density for a galaxy of its type., something that explains why is considered an anemic galaxy by some authors, also with a low star formation activity for a galaxy of its type. In fact, its disk shows pillar-like structures that may have been caused by interactions with the intracluster medium of Virgo and/or with nearby galaxies.

In NGC 4216's halo, besides a rich system of globular clusters with a number of them estimated in around 700 (nearly five times more than the Milky Way), two stellar streams that are interpreted as two satellite galaxies being disrupted and absorbed by this galaxy are present.

NGC 4216 seems to be in a place of the Virgo cluster where dwarf galaxies are being destroyed/accreted at a high rate, with it suffering a largue number of interactions with these type of galaxies

Comments

Sky plot

Sky plot

Histogram

NGC 4216, Samuel

In these collections

Galaxies