Messier 58 (also known as ''M58'' and ''NGC 4579'') is an intermediate barred spiral galaxy with a weak inner ring structure located within 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 ...

Virgo, approximately 68 million

light-year A light-year, alternatively spelled light year, is a large unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equivalent to about 9.46 trillion kilometers (), or 5.88 trillion miles ().One trillion here is taken to be 1012 ...

s away from

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

. It was discovered by Charles Messier on April 15, 1779 and is one of four barred spiral galaxies that appear in Messier's catalogue.The other barred spiral galaxies in Messier's catalogue are

Messier 91 Messier 91 (also known as NGC 4548 or M91) is a barred spiral galaxy that is found in the south of Coma Berenices. It is in the local supercluster and is part of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies. It is about 63 million light-years away from our ga ...

, Messier 95 and

Messier 109 Messier 109 (also known as NGC 3992) is a barred spiral galaxy exhibiting a weak inner ring structure around the central bar approximately away in the northern constellation Ursa Major. M109 can be seen south-east of the star Phecda (γ UMa, Gam ...

M58 is one of the brightest galaxies in the Virgo Cluster. From 1779 it was arguably (though unknown at that time) the farthest known astronomical object until the release of the

New General Catalogue The ''New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars'' (abbreviated NGC) is an astronomical catalogue of deep-sky objects compiled by John Louis Emil Dreyer in 1888. The NGC contains 7,840 objects, including galaxies, star clusters and ...

in the 1880s and even more so the publishing of redshift values in the 1920s.

Early observations

Charles Messier discovered Messier 58, along with the elliptical galaxies Messier 59 and Messier 60, on April 15, 1779. M58 was reported on the chart of the

Comet of 1779 A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena are ...

as it was almost on the same parallel as the star

Epsilon Virginis Epsilon Virginis (ε Virginis, abbreviated Epsilon Vir, ε Vir), formally named Vindemiatrix , is a star in the zodiac constellation of Virgo. The apparent visual magnitude of this star is +2.8, making it the third-brightest member of Vi ...

. Messier described M58 as a very faint

nebula A nebula ('cloud' or 'fog' in Latin; pl. nebulae, nebulæ or nebulas) is a distinct luminescent part of interstellar medium, which can consist of ionized, neutral or molecular hydrogen and also cosmic dust. Nebulae are often star-forming regio ...

in Virgo which would disappear in the slightest amount of light he used to illuminate the

micrometer Micrometer can mean: * Micrometer (device), used for accurate measurements by means of a calibrated screw * American spelling of micrometre The micrometre ( international spelling as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures; ...

wires. This description was later contradicted by John Herschel's observations in 1833 where he described it as a very bright galaxy, especially towards the middle. Herschel's observations were also similar to the descriptions of both

John Dreyer John Dreyer may refer to: *John Louis Emil Dreyer, Danish-Irish astronomer *John Dreyer (footballer) John Brian Dreyer (born 11 June 1963) is an English former professional footballer and manager who played in defence and midfield. He is curren ...

and William Henry Smyth who said that M58 was a bright galaxy, mottled, irregularly round and very much brighter toward the middle.

Characteristics

Like many other spiral galaxies of the Virgo Cluster (e.g.

Messier 90 Messier 90 (also known as M90 and NGC 4569) is an intermediate spiral galaxy exhibiting a weak inner ring structure about 60 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo. It was discovered by Charles Messier in 1781. Membership of the ...

), Messier 58 is an

anemic galaxy An anemic galaxy is a type of spiral galaxy characterized by a low contrast between its spiral arms and its disk. Etymology The term was coined in 1976 by the Canadian astronomer Sidney van den Bergh to classify galaxies that are an interm ...

with low

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

activity concentrated within the galaxy's optical disk, and relatively little

neutral hydrogen The hydrogen line, 21 centimeter line, or H I line is the electromagnetic radiation spectral line that is created by a change in the energy state of neutral hydrogen atoms. This electromagnetic radiation has a precise frequency of , w ...

, also located inside its disk, concentrated in clumps, compared with other galaxies of similar morphological type. This deficiency of gas is believed to be caused by

interactions Interaction is action that occurs between two or more objects, with broad use in philosophy and the sciences. It may refer to: Science * Interaction hypothesis, a theory of second language acquisition * Interaction (statistics) * Interactions o ...

with Virgo's intracluster medium. Messier 58 has a low-luminosity active galactic nucleus, where a

starburst MicroPro International Corporation was an American software company founded in 1978 in San Rafael, California. They are best known as the publisher of WordStar, a popular early word processor for personal computers. History Founding and early su ...

may be present as well as a supermassive black hole with a mass of around 70 million

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. It is also one of the very few galaxies known to possess a UCNR (''ultra-compact nuclear ring''), a series of star-forming regions located in a very small ring around the center of the galaxy. This led to its being dubbed the "ring bearer galaxy" by the popular astronomy YouTube program "Deep Sky videos".

Supernovae

Two

supernova 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 ...

e have been studied in the M58 galaxy. A

type II supernova A Type II supernova (plural: ''supernovae'' or ''supernovas'') results from the rapid collapse and violent explosion of a massive star. A star must have at least 8 times, but no more than 40 to 50 times, the mass of the Sun () to undergo this ...

dubbed as SN 1988A was discovered by

Kaoru Ikeya is a Japanese amateur astronomer who discovered a number of comets. As a young adult, Ikeya lived near Lake Hamana and worked for a piano factory. During his employment there, he made his first discovery in 1963 with an optical telescope he bu ...

, Robert Evans,

Christian Pollas Christian Pollas (b. 1947) is a French astronomer, known for the discovery and observation of minor planets and supernovae. Pollas is credited by the Minor Planet Center with the discovery of 26 asteroids, some co-discovered with Eric W. Elst, ...

and Shingo Horiguchi on January 18, 1988. It had an apparent magnitude of 13.5 found 40

arcseconds A minute of arc, arcminute (arcmin), arc minute, or minute arc, denoted by the symbol , is a unit of angular measurement equal to of one degree. Since one degree is of a turn (or complete rotation), one minute of arc is of a turn. The na ...

south of its center. A

Type I supernova 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 ...

dubbed as SN 1989M was then found on June 28, 1989 by Kimeridze. This one had an apparent magnitude of 12.2 found 33 arcseconds north and 44 arcseconds west of its nucleus.

Notes

References

External links

SEDS Messier: M58Spitzer Space Telescope page on Messier 58
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Messier 58 Intermediate spiral galaxies Messier 058 Messier 058

058 58 may refer to: * 58 (number) * one of the years 58 BC, AD 58, 1958, 2058 * 58 (band), an American rock band * 58 (golf), a round of 58 in golf * "Fifty Eight", a song by Karma to Burn from the album ''Arch Stanton ''Arch Stanton'' is the sixth ...