NGC 4945

NGC 4945 is a barred spiral galaxy located 11.7 million light years away from the Earth in the constellation of Centaurus. It is visible near the stars Xi¹ Centauri and Xi² Centauri. It was discovered in 1826 by James Dunlop. It is similar to the Milky Way, but has an energetic Seyfert 2 nucleus that may have a supermassive black hole. The galaxy has a disk of dust, gas, and many star clusters.[1] It has a mass of about 1.4×10^11 M.

Picture taken by ESO of the galaxy

NGC 4945 has two supernovae observed: SN 2005af (Type II, magnitude 12.8)[2] and SN 2011ja (Type IIP, magnitude 14).[3]

Galaxy group

NGC 4945 is one of the brightest galaxies of the Centaurus A/M83 Group, a big, nearby group of galaxies. The galaxy is the second brightest galaxy in the subgroup centered on Centaurus A.[4][5]

NGC 4945 Media

References

  1. NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database. Results for NGC 4945. Retrieved 2006-11-25.
  2. Transient Name Server entry for SN 2005af. Retrieved 25 March 2023.
  3. Transient Name Server entry for SN 2011ja. Retrieved 25 March 2023.
  4. I. D. Karachentsev. New distances to galaxies in the Centaurus A group. Astronomy and Astrophysics 385 (1) (2002). p. 21–31. doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20020042.
  5. I. D. Karachentsev. The Local Group and Other Neighboring Galaxy Groups. Astronomical Journal 129 (1) (2005). p. 178–188. doi:10.1086/426368.