Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Canes Venatici (CVn)  ·  Contains:  NGC 4449
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NGC 4449 with stellar stream, James E.
NGC 4449 with stellar stream, James E.

NGC 4449 with stellar stream

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NGC 4449 with stellar stream, James E.
NGC 4449 with stellar stream, James E.

NGC 4449 with stellar stream

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Description

NGC 4449 is an irregular Magellanic type galaxy in Canes Venatici located about 13 million light years away.  It is part of the M94 Group or Canes Venatici I Group and is similar in nature to the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) with a general bar shape and scattered young blue star clusters.  It is considered a starburst galaxy with a rate of star formation nearly twice that of the LMC.

NGC 4449 holds the distinction of being the first dwarf galaxy with an identified tidal star stream (faintly shown to the upper left of the galaxy above).  The stellar stream consists of red giant stars and are the remains of a smaller satellite galaxy disrupted by gravitational forces and destined to merge with NGC 4449.  The stream was first noticed by Karachentsev et al. in 2007 from Digitized Sky Survey plates.  In 2012 Martinez-Delgado et al. published the definitive detection of this ongoing interaction event involving a smaller galaxy.  The size of the stream is about 23000 x 5000 light years.  In 2012 astronomers also found a highly flattened globular cluster (not shown) with two tails of young stars that may be the nucleus of a gas-rich galaxy being disrupted and absorbed by NGC 4449.

The galaxy is bright in Ha and LRGB filters.  Revision is an inverted view which greatly helps to show the stellar stream.

Imaged over several nights:  Mar 18, 20; Apr 15, 17, 19, 22-23 and 29, 2022.

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Revisions

  • Final
    NGC 4449 with stellar stream, James E.
    Original
  • NGC 4449 with stellar stream, James E.
    B

B

Description: Inverted

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NGC 4449 with stellar stream, James E.

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