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NGC 4535 (UGC 7727), Virgo, The Lost Galaxy of Copeland
NGC 4535 (UGC 7727), Virgo, The Lost Galaxy of Copeland
NGC 4535 is a large galaxy in the constellation of Virgo, first documented by W. Herschel in 1785. It is classified as SAB(s)c, indicating intermediate morphology between barred and unbarred spirals, no ring, and loosely wound spiral arms. L.S. Copeland named it "The Lost Galaxy" due to its hazy, pale appearance under visual observation trough a smaller telescope. Approximately the size of the Milky Way, it is one of the larger members of the Virgo Galaxy Cluster, and appears to be moving with a "peculiar velocity" through space away from us as it orbits the cluster's center of gravity. This is suggested by the fact that its redshift is significantly higher than predicted from its redshift-independent distance measurements. Since redshift based distance estimates do not correct for peculiar motion through space, redshift-independent methods, such as the Cepheid period-luminosity relation, are regarded as more accurate for nearby galaxies closer than ~140 Mly (z < 0.01).
Based on the minor / major axis ratio of the galaxy's outline, NGC4535 is inclined to our line of sight by approximately 30*. This offers an unobstructed view of the spiral arms, dust lanes around the bulge, a short bar crossing the core, and a small, intensely bright active galactic nucleus of the Hii LINER type powered by a central supermassive black hole. The bright blue floccules within the spiral arms are "OB associations", or immense clusters of new, hot, blue giant stars. A number of curved, elongated structures in the disk strongly resemble "stellar streams", or gravitationally stretched remnants of merged dwarf galaxies. Many major galaxies in the Virgo Cluster show evidence of rapid mass assembly through the process of dwarf galaxy accretion. On the annotated image, two faint, diffuse objects which I suspect to be dwarf candidates are marked as DC.
NGC4535 has been the subject of extensive optical and radio telescope studies on the evolution of massive stars, the distribution of atomic and ionized hydrogen gas, and the interactions between the galaxy and the intergalactic medium within the Virgo Cluster.
SDSS J123421.43+081425.8, along the N perimeter of NGC4535, is identified as a small galaxy with a redshift of 0.00615, corresponding to a redshift based distance of 85.11 Mly. If this galaxy were subject to a similar peculiar velocity as NGC4535, it would actually be half the derived size, lying in the foreground. Unfortunately, redshift-independent distance measurements have not been done for this object.
Derived properties of identified faint objects are listed in the chart on the annotated image. The most remote are five quasars, three of which lie beyond the cosmic event horizon, as their recession velocities in the present cosmological epoch are superluminal. Two of them, marked with (+) appear significantly brighter than their listed apparent magnitudes. Many quasars are variable up to several magnitudes with periods ranging from days to years, depending on the inflow of matter available for accretion. The most intrinsically luminous object is LBQS 1232+0815, which is nearly 5,500 times brighter than the Milky Way. The most distant quasar is SDSS J123352.16+080527.4 (z = 2.76700), lying at the light travel distance (lookback time) of 11.33 Bly.
Image details:
-Remote Takahashi TOA 150 x 1105 mm, Paramount GT GEM
-OSC 27 x 300 sec, 2x drizzle, 50% linear crop
-Software: DSS, XnView, Starnet++ 2, StarTools 1.3 and 1.7, Cosmological Calculator 3
NGC 4535 (UGC 7727), Virgo, The Lost Galaxy of Copeland
NGC 4535 (UGC 7727), Virgo, The Lost Galaxy of Copeland
NGC 4535 is a large galaxy in the constellation of Virgo, first documented by W. Herschel in 1785. It is classified as SAB(s)c, indicating intermediate morphology between barred and unbarred spirals, no ring, and loosely wound spiral arms. L.S. Copeland named it "The Lost Galaxy" due to its hazy, pale appearance under visual observation trough a smaller telescope. Approximately the size of the Milky Way, it is one of the larger members of the Virgo Galaxy Cluster, and appears to be moving with a "peculiar velocity" through space away from us as it orbits the cluster's center of gravity. This is suggested by the fact that its redshift is significantly higher than predicted from its redshift-independent distance measurements. Since redshift based distance estimates do not correct for peculiar motion through space, redshift-independent methods, such as the Cepheid period-luminosity relation, are regarded as more accurate for nearby galaxies closer than ~140 Mly (z < 0.01).
Based on the minor / major axis ratio of the galaxy's outline, NGC4535 is inclined to our line of sight by approximately 30*. This offers an unobstructed view of the spiral arms, dust lanes around the bulge, a short bar crossing the core, and a small, intensely bright active galactic nucleus of the Hii LINER type powered by a central supermassive black hole. The bright blue floccules within the spiral arms are "OB associations", or immense clusters of new, hot, blue giant stars. A number of curved, elongated structures in the disk strongly resemble "stellar streams", or gravitationally stretched remnants of merged dwarf galaxies. Many major galaxies in the Virgo Cluster show evidence of rapid mass assembly through the process of dwarf galaxy accretion. On the annotated image, two faint, diffuse objects which I suspect to be dwarf candidates are marked as DC.
NGC4535 has been the subject of extensive optical and radio telescope studies on the evolution of massive stars, the distribution of atomic and ionized hydrogen gas, and the interactions between the galaxy and the intergalactic medium within the Virgo Cluster.
SDSS J123421.43+081425.8, along the N perimeter of NGC4535, is identified as a small galaxy with a redshift of 0.00615, corresponding to a redshift based distance of 85.11 Mly. If this galaxy were subject to a similar peculiar velocity as NGC4535, it would actually be half the derived size, lying in the foreground. Unfortunately, redshift-independent distance measurements have not been done for this object.
Derived properties of identified faint objects are listed in the chart on the annotated image. The most remote are five quasars, three of which lie beyond the cosmic event horizon, as their recession velocities in the present cosmological epoch are superluminal. Two of them, marked with (+) appear significantly brighter than their listed apparent magnitudes. Many quasars are variable up to several magnitudes with periods ranging from days to years, depending on the inflow of matter available for accretion. The most intrinsically luminous object is LBQS 1232+0815, which is nearly 5,500 times brighter than the Milky Way. The most distant quasar is SDSS J123352.16+080527.4 (z = 2.76700), lying at the light travel distance (lookback time) of 11.33 Bly.
Image details:
-Remote Takahashi TOA 150 x 1105 mm, Paramount GT GEM
-OSC 27 x 300 sec, 2x drizzle, 50% linear crop
-Software: DSS, XnView, Starnet++ 2, StarTools 1.3 and 1.7, Cosmological Calculator 3