List of galaxies with richest globular cluster systems

NGC 6166, galaxy with richest known globular cluster system

This is a list of galaxies with richest known globular cluster systems. As of 2019, the galaxy NGC 6166 has the richest globular cluster system, with 39 000 globular clusters. ^[1] Other galaxies with rich globular cluster systems are NGC 4874, NGC 4889, NGC 3311 and Messier 87. For comparison, the Milky Way has a poor globular cluster system, with only 150-180 globular clusters.

Galaxy	Image	Number of globular clusters	Notes
NGC 6166		39 000 ± 2000 [1]	Richest known globular cluster system
NGC 4874		18 700 ± 2260 [2]	Richest globular cluster system in Coma Cluster
NGC 3311		16 500 ± 2000 [3]	Richest globular cluster system in southern part of the sky and in Hydra Cluster
Messier 87		12 000 ± 800 [4]	Richest globular cluster system in Virgo Supercluster and richest in Messier Catalog. Also richest within 100 million light-years. Data from 2006 survey
NGC 4889		11 000 ± 1340 [5]	Largest galaxy in this list (diameter is about 1050 000 light-years)
IC 4051		6700 ± 530 [5]	Richest globular cluster system in IC catalog
NGC 1395		6000 ± 1100	Richest globular cluster system in Eridanus Cluster, divided into two populations (red and blue)
NGC 1399		6000 ± 600	Richest globular cluster system in Fornax Cluster, most clusters are given
Messier 49		5900
Messier 60		5100 [6]
Messier 86		3800	Richest globular cluster system in Markarian's Chain
NGC 6861		3000 ± 300 [7]
NGC 1600		2850
Messier 59		2200
Messier 89		2000	Data from 2006 survey
Messier 84		1775 ± 150
Sombrero Galaxy		1600 ± 400	Richest globular cluster system around named galaxy
Centaurus A		1450 ± 160 [8]
NGC 4278		1378+32 −194
NGC 4926		1300 ± 300 [5]
Maffei 1		1100	Closest galaxy in this list (distance is about 11 000 000 light-years)

References

1. Harris, William E.; Blakeslee, John P.; Whitmore, Bradley C.; Gnedin, Oleg Y.; Geisler, Douglas; Rothberg, Barry (January 2016). "Globular Cluster Systems in Brightest Cluster Galaxies. Ii. NGC 6166". The Astrophysical Journal. 817 (1): 58. arXiv: 1511.08493 . Bibcode:2016ApJ...817...58H. doi: 10.3847/0004-637X/817/1/58 . ISSN   0004-637X. S2CID   118501801.
2. "Galaxies in a swarm of star clusters". www.spacetelescope.org.
3. Woodley, Kristin A.; Rothberg, Barry; Whitmore, Bradley C.; Harris, William E.; Wehner, Elizabeth M. H. (July 10, 2008). "The Globular Cluster Systems around NGC 3311 and NGC 3309". The Astrophysical Journal. 681 (2): 1233. arXiv: 0802.1723 . Bibcode:2008ApJ...681.1233W. doi: 10.1086/587433 .
4. Tamura, N.; Sharples, R. M.; Arimoto, N.; Onodera, M.; Ohta, K.; Yamada, Y. (2006-12-01). "A Subaru/Suprime-Cam wide-field survey of globular cluster populations around M87 - I. Observation, data analysis and luminosity function". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 373 (2): 588–600. arXiv: astro-ph/0609067 . Bibcode:2006MNRAS.373..588T. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2006.11067.x . ISSN   0035-8711.
5. Harris, William E.; Kavelaars, J. J.; Hanes, David A.; Pritchet, Christopher J.; Baum, W. A. (2009-02-01). "The Globular Cluster Systems in the Coma Ellipticals. Iv: Wfpc2 Photometry for Five Giant Ellipticals". The Astronomical Journal. 137 (2): 3314–3328. arXiv: 0811.1437 . Bibcode:2009AJ....137.3314H. doi: 10.1088/0004-6256/137/2/3314 . ISSN   0004-6256.
6. "Messier Object 60". www.messier.seds.org.
7. "The extremely populated globular cluster system of the lenticular galaxy NGC 6861". ResearchGate.
8. Hughes, Allison K.; Sand, David J.; Seth, Anil; Strader, Jay; Voggel, Karina; Dumont, Antoine; Crnojević, Denija; Caldwell, Nelson; Forbes, Duncan A.; Simon, Joshua D.; Guhathakurta, Puragra; Toloba, Elisa (2021). "NGC 5128 Globular Cluster Candidates Out to 150 KPC: A Comprehensive Catalog from Gaia and Ground-based Data". The Astrophysical Journal. 914 (1): 16. arXiv: 2104.02719 . Bibcode:2021ApJ...914...16H. doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/abf63c . S2CID   233168727.