NGC 3504 is a barred spiral galaxy in the

constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The origins of the e ...

Leo Minor. It has a Hubble distance corresponding to 88 million light-years and was discovered by William Herschel in 1785. The luminosity class of NGC 3504 is I-II, with a broad HI line containing regions of ionized

hydrogen Hydrogen is the chemical element with the symbol H and atomic number 1. Hydrogen is the lightest element. At standard conditions hydrogen is a gas of diatomic molecules having the formula . It is colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, an ...

. Additionally, it is classfied as a starburst galaxy. There is a large amount of molecular gas centered on the galactic nucleus. Compared with other barred spiral galaxies, NGC 3504 is in an early phase of its evolution.

Morphology

NGC 3504 is classified as a type (R₁')SAB(rs)ab galaxy. It has a bright point-like nucleus embedded inside its galactic budge that is crossed by a thin bar. It has

spiral arms Spiral galaxies form a class of galaxy originally described by Edwin Hubble in his 1936 work ''The Realm of the Nebulae''pseudo-ring In mathematics, and more specifically in abstract algebra In mathematics, more specifically algebra, abstract algebra or modern algebra is the study of algebraic structures. Algebraic structures include groups, rings, fields, modules, vector ...

. The galaxy shows little evidence of

star formation Star formation is the process by which dense regions within molecular clouds in The "medium" is present further soon.-->interstellar space

Star-forming disk

According to

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 versa ...

, a star-forming disk has been found around the nucleus of NGC 3504, which the size of the disk's axis is estimated to be 200 pc (~650 light years).

Mass

The mass of NGC 3504 has been difficult to narrow down, but it is believed to be between 2.5*10⁹ M⊙ and 9*10⁹ M⊙.

Supermassive black hole

The supermassive black hole in NGC 3504 is estimated to be 10^7.8 M○ (or 63 million solar masses), according to

near-infrared Infrared (IR), sometimes called infrared light, is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than those of Light, visible light. It is therefore invisible to the human eye. IR is generally understood to encompass wavelengths from ...

K-band brightness measurements for the galaxy's budge.

Supernovae

Two

supernovae A supernova is a powerful and luminous explosion of a star. It has the plural form supernovae or supernovas, and is abbreviated SN or SNe. This transient astronomical event occurs during the last evolutionary stages of a massive star or when a ...

have been observed in NGC 3504: SN 1998cf and SN 2001ac. SN 1998cf SN1998cf was discovered on March 1998 by Eric Emsellem via CCD images captured at Canada-France-Hawaii Observatory and also by Karl Gordon and Geoffrey Clayton from

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 nea ...

. This supernova had an unknown type with a magnitude of 15. SN 2001ac SN 2001ac was discovered at magnitude 18.2, on 12 March 2001 by W. D. Li and S. Beckmann from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. This supernova was initially thought to be type IIn, but later analysis concluded that it was a

Calcium-rich supernova In astronomy, a calcium-rich supernova (or Calcium-rich transient, Ca-rich SN) is a subclass of supernovae that, in contrast to more well-known traditional supernova classes, are fainter and produce unusually large amounts of calcium. Since their ...

, sometimes referred to as a "gap" transient.

NGC 3504 group

NGC 3504 is the brightest member of the NGC 3504 Group, which is a member of the

Leo II Groups The Leo II Groups, or Leo II Cloud, are a series of at least 110 galactic clusters and individual galaxies stretching approximately 30 Mly (9.2 Mpc) off the right edge of the Virgo Supercluster. It is located approximately 65 Mly (20 Mpc) to 95 M ...

, a series of galaxies and galaxy clusters strung out from the right edge of the Virgo Supercluster. There are eight other galaxies in the group including NGC 3380,

NGC 3400 NGC commonly refers to: * New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars, a catalogue of deep sky objects in astronomy NGC may also refer to: Companies * NGC Corporation, name of US electric company Dynegy, Inc. from 1995 to 1998 * Nat ...

NGC 3414 NGC 3414 is a lenticular galaxy in the constellation Leo Minor (constellation), Leo Minor. It was discovered by William Herschel on April 11, 1785. It is the central galaxy of a rich galaxy group. Two galaxies, NGC 3418 and UGC 5958, have similar ...

, NGC 3451,

NGC 3512 NGC commonly refers to: * New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars, a catalogue of deep sky objects in astronomy NGC may also refer to: Companies * NGC Corporation, name of US electric company Dynegy, Inc. from 1995 to 1998 * Nat ...

, UGC 5921 and UGC 5958. This NGC 3504 group is also mentioned by Abraham Mahtessian in his research paper published in 1998.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:NGC 3504 Leo Minor Barred spiral galaxies 3504 033371