NGC 3862

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NGC 3862
NGC3862 - SDSS DR14.jpg
SDSS image of NGC 3862. The small galaxy at the top of the image is IC 2955.
Observation data (J2000 epoch)
Constellation Leo
Right ascension 11h 45m 05.0s [1]
Declination 19° 36 23 [1]
Redshift 0.021718 ± 0.000019 [1]
Heliocentric radial velocity 6511 ± 6 km/s [1]
Distance 304  Mly (93.3  Mpc)
Group or cluster Leo Cluster
Apparent magnitude  (V)13.67 [1]
Characteristics
Type E [1]
Size~152,000  ly (46.6  kpc) (estimated) [1]
Apparent size  (V)1.5 x 1.5 [1]
Notable featurescontains a supermassive black hole powering a jet of plasma that is moving at 98 percent of the speed of light
Other designations
UGC 06723, PGC 036606, MCG +03-30-095, CGCG 097-127, 3C 264, 4C +19.40, PKS 1142+19 [1]

NGC 3862 is an elliptical galaxy located 300 million light-years away [2] in the constellation Leo. [3] Discovered by astronomer William Herschel on April 27, 1785, [4] NGC 3862 is an outlying member of the Leo Cluster. [5]

Contents

The galaxy is classified as a FR I radio galaxy [6] and as a Head-tail radio galaxy. [7] [8] It hosts a supermassive black hole that is blasting a jet of plasma that is moving at 98 percent of the speed of light and is one of the few jets that can be seen in visible light. [9]

One supernova has been observed in NGC 3862: SN 2023bqk (type Ia-pec, mag. 18.3). [10]

Jet

Observations made by Bridle et al. in 1981 using maps made with the VLA revealed a jet-like structure emerging from the nucleus of NGC 3862. [7] In late January 1992, the Hubble Space Telescope observed NGC 3862 with the Faint Object Spectrograph and confirmed the presence of an optical jet in the nucleus of NGC 3862. [11] [3]

A sequence of Hubble Space Telescope images taken between 1994 and 2014 showing the jet in NGC 3862. Hs-2015-19-a-small web.jpg
A sequence of Hubble Space Telescope images taken between 1994 and 2014 showing the jet in NGC 3862.

The optical jet, which has a measured length of 2,800  ly (860  pc ), appears to expand slowly and dims in peak and integrated brightness within the interior of the apparent ring of dust. [12] Within distances of about 260–360  ly (80–110  pc ), the jet appears narrow and well-collimated. [13] [14] At a distance of 330  ly (100  pc ) the jet starts to abruptly expand and becomes turbulent. At this distance, filaments and pronounced kinks can be observed which suggests that the jet is oscillating or evolving a helical structure. [14] After crossing the ring at a distance of around 980–1,300  ly (300–400  pc ), the jet widens dramatically, changes direction, and dims more rapidly both in peak and integrated brightness and becomes more diffuse in appearance. This suggests that the jet is interacting with the dust ring and becomes less collimated. [12] However, Perlman et al. suggests that the disk and the jet occupy physically distinct regions of the galaxy and therefore are not interacting. [15]

The total amount of energy produced by the jet is estimated to be around 3.71 × 1042 ergs. [16]

Knots

The jet of NGC 3862 contains four [17] [15] faint knots of material designated in increasing order from the nucleus: Knot A, B, C and D. [15] The knots exhibit a structure similar to that of a string of pearls. [9]

Radio morphology

NGC 3862 contains a Head-tail radio morphology [5] [18] [19] with two tails [20] [21] that extend 520,000  ly (160  kpc ). [7] [18] This morphology appears to be the result of the galaxy interacting with the intracluster medium (ICM). [22]

Nucleus

The central region of NGC 3862 appears host a nearly face-on disk of dust [23] [24] [12] [25] with a diameter of 2,200  ly (675  pc ). [26] However, as the jet of galaxy has been suggested to lie at angle of 50° [15] [12] to Earth's line of sight, the dust disk must be puffed up [12] [23] in order for the jet to have been disturbed by the disk. [12] The emission of CO in the nucleus exhibits a double-horned line profile which suggests that the dust disk is rotating. The inferred distribution of the CO is consistent with the observed dust disk and the presence of the molecular gas suggests that the gas originated from either a merger with two gas-rich galaxies a few billion years ago or from cannibalism of smaller gas-rich galaxies. [27]

Hutchings et al. proposed instead that the apparent disk represents an evacuated region cleared of dust by some nuclear related process or by the jet itself [28] [23] as indicated by the color of the region inside the ring being similar to the color of the galaxy spectrum. [28] Lara et al. also suggested this as the jet appears to widen within the apparent ring which would be consistent with an explanation of a favored expansion of the jet due to the lower density medium within the evacuated region or bubble. [13]

Supermassive black hole

NGC 3862 contains a supermassive black hole with an estimated mass of 4.7×108 M☉. [29] [8]

The black hole is responsible for producing the jet of plasma that is moving at nearly the speed of light. [9]

Companion galaxies

NGC 3862 has an elliptical [30] or a lenticular companion galaxy known as IC 2955. It lies about 72,000  ly (22  kpc ) from NGC 3862. [24]

See also

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hercules A</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">NGC 3311</span> Galaxy in the constellation Hydra

NGC 3311 is a super-giant elliptical galaxy located about 190 million light-years away in the constellation Hydra. The galaxy was discovered by astronomer John Herschel on March 30, 1835. NGC 3311 is the brightest member of the Hydra Cluster and forms a pair with NGC 3309 which along with NGC 3311, dominate the central region of the Hydra Cluster.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NGC 6047</span> Galaxy in the constellation Hercules

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">NGC 708</span> Galaxy in the constellation Andromeda

NGC 708 is an elliptical galaxy located 240 million light-years away in the constellation Andromeda and was discovered by astronomer William Herschel on September 21, 1786. It is classified as a cD galaxy and is the brightest member of Abell 262. NGC 708 is a weak FR I radio galaxy and is also classified as a type 2 Seyfert galaxy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NGC 703</span> Galaxy in the constellation Andromeda

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">NGC 541</span> Galaxy in the constellation Cetus

NGC 541 is a lenticular galaxy located in the constellation Cetus. It is located at a distance of about 230 million light years from Earth, which, given its apparent dimensions, means that NGC 541 is about 130,000 light years across. It was discovered by Heinrich d'Arrest on October 30, 1864. It is a member of the Abell 194 galaxy cluster and is included in the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies in the category galaxies with nearby fragments. NGC 541 is a radio galaxy of Fanaroff–Riley class I, also known as 3C 40A.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NGC 759</span> Galaxy in the constellation Andromeda

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">NGC 1386</span> Galaxy in the constellation Eridanus

NGC 1386 is a spiral galaxy located in the constellation Eridanus. It is located at a distance of circa 53 million light years from Earth, which, given its apparent dimensions, means that NGC 1386 is about 50,000 light years across. It is a Seyfert galaxy, the only one in Fornax Cluster.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">NGC 545</span> Galaxy in the constellation Cetus

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">NGC 547</span> Galaxy in the constellation Cetus

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">NGC 2273</span> Galaxy in the constellation Lynx

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">NGC 4294</span> Galaxy in the constellation Virgo

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">NGC 4298</span> Galaxy in the constellation Coma Berenices

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">NGC 4299</span> Spiral galaxy in the constellation Virgo

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">NGC 4302</span> Galaxy in the constellation Coma Berenices

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Extended emission-line region</span> Interstellar clouds

An extended emission-line region (EELR) is a giant interstellar cloud ionized by the radiation of an active galactic nucleus (AGN) inside a galaxy or photons produced by the shocks associated with the radio jets. An EELR can appear as a resolved cloud in relative nearby galaxies and as narrow emission lines in more distant galaxies.

References

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