NGC 4214 is a

dwarf Dwarf or dwarves may refer to: Common uses *Dwarf (folklore), a being from Germanic mythology and folklore * Dwarf, a person or animal with dwarfism Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities * Dwarf (''Dungeons & Dragons''), a humanoid ...

barred irregular galaxy located around 10 million light-years away 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 ...

Canes Venatici Canes Venatici () is one of the IAU designated constellations, 88 constellations designated by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). It is a small northern constellation that was created by Johannes Hevelius in the 17th century. Its name is ...

. NGC 4214 is a member of the M94 Group.

Characteristics

NGC 4214 is both larger and brighter than the

Small Magellanic Cloud The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), or Nubecula Minor, is a dwarf galaxy near the Milky Way. Classified as a dwarf irregular galaxy, the SMC has a D25 isophotal diameter of about , and contains several hundred million stars. It has a total mass of ...

as well as a

starburst galaxy A starburst galaxy is one undergoing an exceptionally high rate of star formation, as compared to the long-term average rate of star formation in the galaxy or the star formation rate observed in most other galaxies. For example, the star formatio ...

, 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 A super star cluster (SSC) is a very massive young open cluster that is thought to be the precursor of a globular cluster. These clusters called "super" because they are relatively more luminous and contain more mass than other young star clusters. ...

rich in Wolf-Rayet stars and ''NGC 4214-II'' is younger (age less than 3 million years), including a number of

star cluster Star clusters are large groups of stars. Two main types of star clusters can be distinguished: globular clusters are tight groups of ten thousand to millions of old stars which are gravitationally bound, while open clusters are more loosely clust ...

s and

stellar association A stellar association is a very loose star cluster, looser than both open clusters and globular clusters. Stellar associations will normally contain from 10 to 100 or more stars. The stars share a common origin, but have become gravitationally u ...

s. 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 mass 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 ...

es. 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 shows evidence of multiple episodes star formation in its recent past: one around 400 million years ago, and another 1.5 billion years ago.

References

External links

*
Hubble Heritage site: Detailed information on the HST picture of 4214

Galaxy NGC 4214: A star formation laboratory
ESA/Hubble photo release {{DEFAULTSORT:NGC 4214 Dwarf galaxies Irregular galaxies Barred irregular galaxies Canes Venatici 4214 07278 39225 M94 Group

Characteristics

See also

References

External links