NGC 4414 is an
unbarred spiral galaxy about 62 million
light-years away in the
constellation Coma Berenices. It is a
flocculent spiral galaxy, with short segments of spiral structure but without the dramatic well-defined spiral arms of a
grand design spiral. In 1974 a
supernova, SN 1974G, was observed and was the only supernova in this galaxy to be recorded until 7 June 2013 when SN 2013df was discovered at magnitude 14 and 1 January 2021 when SN 2021J was discovered at magnitude 12.
It was imaged by the
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 ver ...
in 1995, as part of the HST's main mission to determine the distance to galaxies, and again in 1999 as part of the Hubble Heritage project. It has been part of an ongoing effort to study its
Cepheid variable stars. The outer arms appear blue due to the continuing formation of
young stars and include a possible
luminous blue variable with an
absolute magnitude of −10.
NGC 4414 is also a very isolated galaxy without signs of past
interactions with other galaxies and despite not being a
starburst galaxy shows a high density and richness of gas – both
atomic and
molecular, with the former extending far beyond its optical disk.
NGC 4414 is a member of the
Coma I Group
The Coma I Group is a group of galaxies located about away in the constellation Coma Berenices. The brightest member of the group is NGC 4725. The Coma I Group is rich in spiral galaxies while containing few elliptical and lenticular galaxies. ...
, a group of galaxies lying physically close to the
Virgo Cluster.
References
External links
*
Hubble Heritage Project NGC 4414*
Flocculent spiral galaxies
Unbarred spiral galaxies
Coma Berenices
4414
07539
40692
Coma I Group
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