NGC 4696 is an

elliptical galaxy An elliptical galaxy is a type of galaxy with an approximately ellipsoidal shape and a smooth, nearly featureless image. They are one of the four main classes of galaxy described by Edwin Hubble in his Hubble sequence and 1936 work ''The Real ...

. It lies around away in the constellation

Centaurus Centaurus is a bright constellation in the southern sky. One of the largest constellations, Centaurus was included among the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy, and it remains one of the 88 modern constellations. ...

. It is the brightest galaxy in the Centaurus Cluster, a large, rich

cluster of galaxies A galaxy cluster, or a cluster of galaxies, is a structure that consists of anywhere from hundreds to thousands of galaxies that are bound together by gravity, with typical masses ranging from 1014 to 1015 solar masses. They are the second-lar ...

in the constellation of the same name. The galaxy is surrounded by many dwarf elliptical galaxies also located within the cluster. There is believed to be a

supermassive black hole A supermassive black hole (SMBH or sometimes SBH) is the largest type of black hole, with its mass being on the order of hundreds of thousands, or millions to billions of times the mass of the Sun (). Black holes are a class of astronomical ob ...

at the center of the galaxy. One supernova, SN 2017ejb ( type Ia, mag. 17.2), was discovered in NGC 4696 on 28 May, 2017.Transient Name Server entry for SN 2017ejb.
Retrieved 24 March 2023.

References

External links

* *http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-08/eic-n4a081010.php *http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap161207.html Elliptical galaxies Peculiar galaxies Centaurus Cluster Centaurus 4696 43296 {{Elliptical-galaxy-stub