NGC 5920 is a large lenticular galaxy located in the Serpens constellation. Discovered on March 30, 1887, by American astronomer

Lewis Swift Lewis A. Swift (February 29, 1820 – January 5, 1913) was an American astronomer who discovered 13 comets and 1,248 previously uncatalogued nebulae. Only William Herschel discovered more nebulae visually. Discoveries Swift discovered or co-discov ...

, NGC 5920 is 711 million light-years distant from planet

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 is a narrow-line radio galaxy and about 300,000 light-years in diameter.

Characteristics

NGC 5920 has an active galactic nucleus. It presents a radio jet. In addition, it hosts a radio source in its core called 3C 318.1, indicating emissions of strong radio waves. NGC 5920 was studied by Chandra-MUSE, in which X-ray and optical filament analysis in clusters were carried out. The main purpose for this was to find the

excitation Excitation, excite, exciting, or excitement may refer to: * Excitation (magnetic), provided with an electrical generator or alternator * Excite Ballpark, located in San Jose, California * Excite (web portal), web portal owned by IAC * Electron exc ...

process responsible for increased filament emission. The research was further improved by following the cold gas phase and through study of intensive ratios in emission lines that caused the excitation. Researchers found that, there was a spatial connection between the filaments that are cold and having lower metal abundance levels.

Group Membership

NGC 5920 is the

brightest cluster galaxy A brightest cluster galaxy (BCG) is defined as the brightest galaxy in a cluster of galaxies. BCGs include the most massive galaxies in the universe. They are generally elliptical galaxies which lie close to the geometric and kinematical center ...

of a small galaxy cluster which is known as MKW 3. Apart from it, another radio galaxy NGC 5919, is also located there.

References

{{Serpens Lenticular galaxies Radio galaxies Serpens 318.1 5920 4C objects 09822 54839 54839 Astronomical objects discovered in 1887 Discoveries by Lewis Swift