NGC 4414 is an

unbarred spiral galaxy An unbarred spiral galaxyAstronomy Pictures(accessed 18 April 2010) is a type of spiral galaxy without a central bar, or one that is not a barred spiral galaxy. It is designated with an SA in the galaxy morphological classification scheme. Ba ...

about 62 million light-years away in the constellation

Coma Berenices Coma Berenices is an ancient asterism in the northern sky, which has been defined as one of the 88 modern constellations. It is in the direction of the fourth galactic quadrant, between Leo and Boötes, and it is visible in both hemisphe ...

. It is a

flocculent spiral galaxy A flocculent spiral galaxy is a type of spiral galaxy. Unlike the well-defined spiral architecture of a grand design spiral galaxy, flocculent (meaning "flaky") galaxies are patchy, with discontinuous spiral arm Spiral galaxies form a ...

, with short segments of spiral structure but without the dramatic well-defined spiral arms of a grand design spiral. Four supernovae have been observed in this galaxy: SN 1974G (type I, mag. 13), SN 2013df ( type II, mag. 14), SN 2021J ( type Ia, mag. 12), and SN 2023hlf (type II, mag. 17.8). 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 vers ...

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 A Cepheid variable () is a type of star that pulsates radially, varying in both diameter and temperature and producing changes in brightness with a well-defined stable period and amplitude. A strong direct relationship between a Cepheid vari ...

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 Absolute magnitude () is a measure of the luminosity of a celestial object on an inverse logarithmic astronomical magnitude scale. An object's absolute magnitude is defined to be equal to the apparent magnitude that the object would have if it ...

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 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 ...

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, a group of galaxies lying physically close to the

Virgo Cluster The Virgo Cluster is a large cluster of galaxies whose center is 53.8 ± 0.3 Mly (16.5 ± 0.1 Mpc) away in the constellation Virgo. Comprising approximately 1,300 (and possibly up to 2,000) member galaxies, the cluster forms the heart of the la ...

References

External links

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Hubble Heritage Project NGC 4414
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Flocculent spiral galaxies Unbarred spiral galaxies Coma Berenices 4414 07539 40692 Coma I Group {{Spiral-galaxy-stub