NGC 4253

NGC 4253 is a barred spiral galaxy located in the constellation Coma Berenices. It is located at a distance of about 185 million light years from Earth, which, given its apparent dimensions, means that NGC 4253 is about 65,000 light years across.[1] It was discovered by William Herschel on February 3, 1788.[2] It is a Seyfert galaxy.[1]

NGC 4253
NGC 4253 by the Hubble Space Telescope
Observation data (J2000 epoch)
ConstellationComa Berenices
Right ascension12h 18m 26.5s[1]
Declination+29° 48′ 46″[1]
Redshift0.012882 ± 0.000050 [1]
Heliocentric radial velocity3,862 ± 15 km/s[1]
Distance185 Mly (56.6 Mpc)[1]
Apparent magnitude (V)13.5
Characteristics
Type(R')SB(s)a [1]
Apparent size (V)1.0′ × 0.8′[1]
Notable featuresSeyfert galaxy
Other designations
UGC 7344, MRK 766, MCG +05-29-051, PGC 39525[1]

Characteristics

The NGC 4253 is a barred galaxy with thick bar, while the arms form a ring. Marquez et al. suggested that the galaxy has a secondary bar perpendicular to the main bar,[3] although that could be an artifact due to the presence of strong dust lanes and no inner bar is visible in images by WFPC2 F606W of the Hubble Space Telescope.[4] There is evidence of star formation along the dust lanes in the leading egde of the bar, especially at the east half.[5]

The nucleus of NGC 4253 has been found to be active and it has been categorised as a narrow line type I Seyfert galaxy.[6] The most accepted theory for the energy source of active galactic nuclei is the presence of an accretion disk around a supermassive black hole. The mass of the black hole in the centre of NGC 5506 is estimated to be 1–13 × 106 M☉ based on reverberation mapping of the hydrogen lines,[7] 1.6+1.4
−1.2×106 M☉ based on time lag spectra,[8] and 1.26+1.00
−0.77×106 M☉ based on X-ray variations.[9]

The nucleus emits X-rays. The X-rays have been found to vary in intensity, exhibiting quasi-periodic oscillation, although this phenomenon appears to be transient.[10] The variability was found by ROSAT X-ray satellite.[11] The intensity varied by a factor of 3 every 6,450 seconds (about 1.8 hours) based on observations by XMM-Newton in 2005,[10] while in 2000 that period was estimated to be 4,200 seconds.[12] It has been suggested that the source of the oscillation lies at the inner part of the accretion disk.[10]

The galaxy has been found to host a maser and is a compact source in radiowaves.[13]

Nearby galaxies

NGC 4253 belongs to a galaxy group known as LGG 276. Other members of this group includes the galaxies NGC 4131, NGC 4134, NGC 4169, NGC 4174, NGC 4175, NGC 4185, NGC 4196, NGC 4132, MCG 5-29-24, MCG 5-29-35, UGC 7221, and UGC 7294.[14] NGC 4245 lies at a projected distance of 16.5 arcminuntes.[15]

See also
  • NGC 4593 – a similar barred galaxy which hosts an active nucleus
  • NGC 5506 – another similar Seyfert galaxy

References
  1. "NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database". Results for NGC 4253. Retrieved 2023-05-06.
  2. Seligman, Courtney. "NGC 4253". Celestial Atlas. Retrieved 19 November 2018.
  3. Márquez, I.; Durret, F.; González Delgado, R. M.; Marrero, I.; Masegosa, J.; Maza, J.; Moles, M.; Pérez, E.; Roth, M. (November 1999). "Near-infrared photometry of isolated spirals with and without an AGN: I. The data". Astronomy and Astrophysics Supplement Series. 140 (1): 1–14. arXiv:astro-ph/9909351. Bibcode:1999A&AS..140....1M. doi:10.1051/aas:1999516. S2CID 11118939.
  4. Erwin, Peter (March 2004). "Double-barred galaxies: I. A catalog of barred galaxies with stellar secondary bars and inner disks". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 415 (3): 941–957. arXiv:astro-ph/0310806. Bibcode:2004A&A...415..941E. doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20034408. S2CID 12717503.
  5. Martini, Paul; Regan, Michael W.; Mulchaey, John S.; Pogge, Richard W. (June 2003). "Circumnuclear Dust in Nearby Active and Inactive Galaxies. I. Data". The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series. 146 (2): 353–406. arXiv:astro-ph/0212396. Bibcode:2003ApJS..146..353M. doi:10.1086/367817. S2CID 15161097.
  6. Boller, T.; Brandt, W. N.; Fink, H. (1 January 1996). "Soft X-ray properties of narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 305: 53. arXiv:astro-ph/9504093. Bibcode:1996A&A...305...53B. ISSN 0004-6361.
  7. Bentz, Misty C.; Walsh, Jonelle L.; Barth, Aaron J.; Yoshii, Yuzuru; Woo, Jong-Hak; Wang, Xiaofeng; Treu, Tommaso; Thornton, Carol E.; Street, Rachel A.; Steele, Thea N.; Silverman, Jeffrey M.; Serduke, Frank J. D.; Sakata, Yu; Minezaki, Takeo; Malkan, Matthew A.; Li, Weidong; Lee, Nicholas; Hiner, Kyle D.; Hidas, Marton G.; Greene, Jenny E.; Gates, Elinor L.; Ganeshalingam, Mohan; Filippenko, Alexei V.; Canalizo, Gabriela; Bennert, Vardha Nicola; Baliber, Nairn (20 June 2010). "The Lick Agn Monitoring Project: Reverberation Mapping of Optical Hydrogen and Helium Recombination Lines". The Astrophysical Journal. 716 (2): 993–1011. arXiv:1004.2922. Bibcode:2010ApJ...716..993B. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/716/2/993. S2CID 16275456.
  8. Emmanoulopoulos, D.; Papadakis, I. E.; Dovčiak, M.; McHardy, I. M. (21 April 2014). "General relativistic modelling of the negative reverberation X-ray time delays in AGN". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 439 (4): 3931–3950. doi:10.1093/mnras/stu249.
  9. Giacchè, S.; Gilli, R.; Titarchuk, L. (February 2014). "Analysis of X-ray spectral variability and black hole mass determination of the NLS1 galaxy Mrk 766". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 562: A44. arXiv:1311.1376. Bibcode:2014A&A...562A..44G. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201321904. S2CID 55048489.
  10. Zhang, Peng; Zhang, Peng-fei; Yan, Jing-zhi; Fan, Yi-zhong; Liu, Qing-zhong (24 October 2017). "An X-Ray Periodicity of ~1.8 hr in Narrow-line Seyfert 1 Galaxy Mrk 766". The Astrophysical Journal. 849 (1): 9. arXiv:1707.03586. Bibcode:2017ApJ...849....9Z. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aa8d6e. S2CID 119493013.
  11. Molendi, S.; Maccacaro, T.; Schaeidt, S. (1 April 1993). "Variability of the Seyfert galaxy MKN 766 in the ROSAT all sky survey". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 271: 18–24. Bibcode:1993A&A...271...18M. ISSN 0004-6361.
  12. Boller, Th.; Keil, R.; Trümper, J.; O'Brien, P. T.; Reeves, J.; Page, M. (January 2001). "Detection of an X-ray periodicity in the Narrow-line Seyfert 1 Galaxy Mrk 766 with XMM-Newton". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 365 (1): L146–L151. arXiv:astro-ph/0010646. Bibcode:2001A&A...365L.146B. doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20000083. S2CID 17363989.
  13. Tarchi, A.; Castangia, P.; Columbano, A.; Panessa, F.; Braatz, J. A. (August 2011). "Narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies: an amasing class of AGN". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 532: A125. arXiv:1107.5155. Bibcode:2011A&A...532A.125T. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201117213. S2CID 118464236.
  14. Garcia, A. M. (1 July 1993). "General study of group membership. II. Determination of nearby groups". Astronomy and Astrophysics Supplement Series. 100: 47–90. Bibcode:1993A&AS..100...47G. ISSN 0365-0138.
  15. de Vaucouleurs, G.; de Vaucouleurs, A.; Corwin, J. R. (1 January 1976). "Second reference catalogue of bright galaxies". Second Reference Catalogue of Bright Galaxies. 1976. Bibcode:1976RC2...C......0D.
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