NGC 1365, also known as the Great Barred Spiral Galaxy,
is a
double-barred spiral galaxy about
56 million light-years away in the
constellation Fornax
Fornax () is a constellation in the southern celestial hemisphere, partly ringed by the celestial river Eridanus. Its name is Latin for furnace. It was named by French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in 1756. Fornax is one of the 88 modern ...
.
Characteristics
NGC 1365 is a barred spiral galaxy in the
Fornax cluster
The Fornax Cluster is a cluster of galaxies lying at a distance of 19 megaparsecs (62 million light-years). It has an estimated mass of solar masses, making it the second richest galaxy cluster within 100 million light-years, after the consider ...
. Within the larger long bar stretching across the center of the galaxy appears to be a smaller bar that comprises the core, with an apparent size of about 50″ × 40″.
This second bar is more prominent in infrared images of the central region of the galaxy, and likely arises from a combination of dynamical instabilities of stellar orbits in the region, along with gravity,
density waves, and the overall rotation of the disc. The inner bar structure likely rotates as a whole more rapidly than the larger long bar, creating the diagonal shape seen in images.
The spiral arms extend in a wide curve north and south from the ends of the east-west bar and form an almost
ring like Z-shaped halo.
Astronomers think NGC 1365's prominent bar plays a crucial role in the galaxy's evolution, drawing gas and dust into a star-forming maelstrom and ultimately feeding material into the central black hole.
NGC 1365, including its two outer spiral arms, spreads over around 200,000 light-years. Different parts of the galaxy take different times to make a full rotation around the core of the galaxy, with the outer parts of the bar completing one circuit in about 350 million years. NGC 1365 and other galaxies of its type have come to more prominence in recent years with new observations indicating that the Milky Way could also be a barred spiral galaxy. Such galaxies are quite common — two thirds of spiral galaxies are barred according to recent estimates, and studying others can help astronomers understand our own galactic home.
Supernovae
2012fr on October 27 2012,
2001du on August 24 2001,
SN 1983V on November 25 1983, and
1957C were all
supernovae observed in NGC 1365.
Supermassive black hole
The central
supermassive black hole
A supermassive black hole (SMBH or sometimes SBH) is the largest type of black hole, with its mass being on the order of hundreds of thousands, or millions to billions of times the mass of the Sun (). Black holes are a class of astronomical ob ...
in the
active nucleus, which has a mass of about 2 million
solar masses
The solar mass () is a standard unit of mass in astronomy, equal to approximately . It is often used to indicate the masses of other stars, as well as stellar clusters, nebulae, galaxies and black holes. It is approximately equal to the mass of ...
, rotates at close to the speed of light. These observations, announced in February 2013, were made using the X-ray telescope satellite
NuSTAR
NuSTAR (Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, also named Explorer 93 and SMEX-11) is a NASA space-based X-ray telescope that uses a conical approximation to a Wolter telescope to focus high energy X-rays from astrophysical sources, especiall ...
.
- Unambiguous Determination of the Spin of the Black Hole in NGC 1365
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See also
* NGC 1300
NGC 1300 is a barred spiral galaxy located about 61 million light-years away in the constellation Eridanus. The galaxy is about 110,000 light-years across. It is a member of the Eridanus Cluster, a cluster of 200 galaxies.
It was discovered b ...
* NGC 1097
References
External links
An Elegant Galaxy in an Unusual Light
— ESO press release 22 September 2010
The Great Barred Spiral GalaxyFine Details in a Barred Galaxy
— ESO press release 27 February 1999
Starry Bulges Yield Secrets to Galaxy Growth
— Hubble Space Telescope
The Hubble Space Telescope (often referred to as HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most vers ...
press release October 6, 1999 01:00 PM (EDT)
Starry bulges yield secrets to galaxy growth
Lars Lindberg Christensen, ESA/Hubble news release 6 October 1999
(Release No.: 2013-07 : February 27, 2013)
NASA's NuSTAR Helps Solve Riddle of Black Hole Spin
NuSTAR
NuSTAR (Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, also named Explorer 93 and SMEX-11) is a NASA space-based X-ray telescope that uses a conical approximation to a Wolter telescope to focus high energy X-rays from astrophysical sources, especiall ...
Feb 27, 2013
EXTREME X-RAY VARIABILITY AND ABSORPTION IN NGC 1365
XMM-Newton
''XMM-Newton'', also known as the High Throughput X-ray Spectroscopy Mission and the X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission, is an X-ray space observatory launched by the European Space Agency in December 1999 on an Ariane 5 rocket. It is the second cornerst ...
*
NGC 1365 at Constellation Guide
{{DEFAULTSORT:NGC 1365
Barred spiral galaxies
Seyfert galaxies
Luminous infrared galaxies
Fornax Cluster
1365
Year 1365 ( MCCCLXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events January–December
* March 3 – Battle of Gataskogen: Albert of Mecklenburg defeats and captures Ma ...
13179
Fornax (constellation)
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