NGC 2859 is a
barred lenticular galaxy located some 83
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 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. The
morphological classification is (R)SB(r)0
+,
where the S0
+ notation indicates a well-defined physical structure that is lacking in visible spiral arms. It has a strong bar (B) of the "ansae" type, which means it grows brighter or wider toward the tips. A faint, secondary bar is positioned at nearly a right angle to the main bar. These features are surrounded by a weak inner ring (r) that appears diffuse. The outer region of the galaxy hosts a prominent, detached ring (R) that includes a series of blue-hued knots along the eastern side.
The central
supermassive black hole is an estimated 105 million
times the mass of the Sun. The nucleus is tentatively classified as a transition type T2:,
with no indication of
activity.
References
External links
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Lenticular galaxies
Barred lenticular galaxies
Ring galaxies
Leo Minor
2859
05001
26649
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