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NGC 4214 | |
---|---|
Observation data (J2000 epoch) | |
Constellation | Canes Venatici |
Right ascension | 12h 15m 39.17s[1] |
Declination | +36° 19′ 36.8″[1] |
Redshift | 0.000971[1] |
Heliocentric radial velocity | 291 ± 1 km/s[1] |
Distance | 9.72 ± 0.82 Mly (2.979 ± 0.252 Mpc)[1] |
Apparent magnitude (V) | 10.2[1] |
Characteristics | |
Type | IAB(s)m[1] |
Size | ~31,100 ly (9.53 kpc) (estimated)[1] |
Apparent size (V) | 8.4′ × 6.6′[1] |
Other designations | |
KUG 1213+366, IRAS 12131+3636, NGC 4228, UGC 7278, MCG 6-27-42, PGC 39225, CGCG 187-32[1] |
NGC 4214 is a dwarf barred irregular galaxy located around 10 million light-years[2] away in the constellation Canes Venatici. It was discovered on 28 April 1785 by German-British astronomer William Herschel.[3] NGC 4214 is a member of the M94 Group.
NGC 4214 is both larger and brighter than the Small Magellanic Cloud[4] as well as a starburst galaxy, with the largest star-forming regions (NGC 4214-I and NGC 4214-II) in the galaxy's center. Of the two, NGC 4214-I contains a super star cluster rich in Wolf-Rayet stars and NGC 4214-II is younger (age less than 3 million years), including a number of star clusters and stellar associations.[5]
NGC 4214 also has two older super star clusters, both with an age of 200 million years and respective masses of 2.6*10.5 and 1.5*106 solar masses.[6]
Two satellites are known to exist around the vicinity of NGC 4214. One is DDO 113, which has an absolute V-band magnitude of −12.2. It stopped star formation around 1 billion years ago. Another, more recently discovered object is MADCASH-2, officially named MADCASH J121007+352635-dw. The name refers to the MADCASH (Magellanic Analog Dwarf Companions and Stellar Halos) project. It is similar to typical ultra-faint dwarf galaxies, with an absolute V-band magnitude of −9.15, except in that it shows evidence of multiple episodes of star formation in its recent past: one around 400 million years ago, and another 1.5 billion years ago.[7]
One supernova has been observed in NGC 4214: SN 1954A (type Ib, mag. 9.8) was discovered by Paul Wild on 30 May 1954.[8] [Note: some sources incorrectly list the discovery date as 10 April 1954.][9] In addition, the galaxy has hosted one luminous blue variable: SN 2010U (type LBV, mag. 16) was discovered by Kōichi Itagaki on 5 February 2010.[10][11]