NGC 5907

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NGC 5907
Ngc5907 stellar stream.jpg
NGC 5907 and stellar stream
Observation data (J2000 epoch)
Constellation Draco
Right ascension 15h 15m 53.2397s [1]
Declination +56° 19′ 47.568″ [1]
Redshift 0.002218 [1]
Heliocentric radial velocity 665 ± 1 km/s [1]
Distance 46.56 ± 1.77  Mly (14.275 ± 0.543  Mpc) [2]
Group or cluster NGC 5907 group (LGG 396)
Apparent magnitude  (V)11.1 [1]
Surface brightness 23.6 mag/arcsec2 [3]
Characteristics
Type SA(s)c? edge-on [1]
Size~173,400  ly (53.15  kpc) (estimated) [1]
Apparent size  (V)12.7′ × 1.4′ [1]
Other designations
Splinter Galaxy, HOLM 704A, IRAS 15146+5629, NGC 5906, UGC 9801, MCG +09-25-040, PGC 54470, CGCG 274-038 [1]

NGC 5907 (also known as NGC 5906, Knife Edge Galaxy, or Splinter Galaxy) is a spiral galaxy located approximately 46.5 million light years from Earth. [2] German-British astronomer William Herschel discovered the galaxy on 5 May 1788. [4] Its most notable features are its large stellar stream and ultraluminous X-ray source.

Contents

Characteristics

NGC 5907 has an anomalously low metallicity and few detectable giant stars, being apparently composed almost entirely of dwarf stars. [5] It is a member of the NGC 5866 Group.

NGC 5907 has long been considered a prototypical example of a warped spiral in relative isolation. In 1998, a faint ring structure, likely caused by a disrupted dwarf spheroidal galaxy, was first observed around the galaxy. [6] This challenged the assumption of isolation and suggests the gravitational perturbations induced by the stream progenitor may be the cause for the warp. Then, in 2008, an international team of astronomers announced the presence of an extended double loop tidal stream coiling around the galaxy. [7] The existence of part of these tidal streams has been recently challenged by some deeper surveys, which show only a single knee-shaped stream as opposed to the full double loop structure. [8] This shorter stream has a length of 45′ in the sky (or a physical size of 220 kpc) and has a surface brightness ranging from 27.6 mag/arcsec2 at its brightest to 28.8 at its faintest. [9]

An ultraluminous X-ray source, NGC 5907 ULX-1, is located in the galaxy. [10] This source is also called an ultraluminous X-ray pulsar (ULXP) because it exhibits a rapid pulsation effect. This pulsation has a period of 5.7 days and is caused by a rotating neutron star orbiting a high mass companion. [11] The neutron star itself has a spin period of 1.13 seconds and seems to be accelerating; its period ten years prior was 1.43 seconds. [10] It is one of the brightest such source yet discovered with a luminosity over 1041 erg/s (7 orders of magnitude more luminous than the Sun). [12] Notably, its peak luminosity is over 1000 times greater than the Eddington luminosity for a neutron star. [10]

NGC 5907 and the galaxy KUG 1513+566 are listed together as Holm 704 in Erik Holmberg's A Study of Double and Multiple Galaxies Together with Inquiries into some General Metagalactic Problems, published in 1937. [13]

NGC 5907 group

NGC 5907 is part of a group of galaxies that bears its name. The NGC 5907 group (also known as LGG 396) has at least four members, including Messier 102, NGC 5879, and UGC 9776. [14]

Supernova

One supernova has been observed in NGC 5907: SN 1940A (type II-L, mag 14.3) was discovered by Josef J. Johnson on 16 February 1940. [15] [16] [17]

Location

NGC 5907-starmap.png

The edge-on galaxy is seen in the constellation Draco, near the star iota Draconis. It is seen in the sky near to the much more distant galaxy NGC 5965.

NGC Identification

NGC 5907 is also known as NGC 5906. [4] [18] This second NGC number refers to a fainter part of the galaxy [4] lying west of the dust lane [18] that was recorded by astronomer and physicist George Johnstone Stoney on April 13, 1850. [4]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Results for object NGC 5907". NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database. NASA and Caltech . Retrieved 2010-07-11.
  2. 1 2 "Distance Results for NGC 5907". NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database. Retrieved 2010-07-11.
  3. ↑ "NGC 5907 - Intermediate Spiral Galaxy in Draco". theskylive.com. Retrieved 2025-05-12.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Seligman, Courtney. "New General Catalogue Objects: NGC 5907". Celestial Atlas. Retrieved 2 January 2025.
  5. ↑ Liu, M. C.; Marleau, F. R.; Graham, J. R.; Charlot, S.; Sackett, P.; Zepf, S. E. (December 1998). "Weighing the Stellar Content of NGC 5907's Dark Matter Halo". Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society. 30: 1258. Bibcode:1998AAS...193.0807L.
  6. ↑ Shang, Zhaohui; Zheng, Zhongyuan; Brinks, Elias; Chen, Jiansheng; Burstein, David; Su, Hongjun; Byun, Yong-ik; Deng, Licai; Deng, Zugan; Fan, Xiaohui; Jiang, Zhaoji; Li, Yong; Lin, Weipeng; Ma, Feng; Sun, Wei-hsin (1998-07-27). "Ring Structure and Warp of NGC 5907: Interaction with Dwarf Galaxies*". The Astrophysical Journal. 504 (1): L23. arXiv: astro-ph/9806395 . Bibcode:1998ApJ...504L..23S. doi:10.1086/311563. ISSN   0004-637X.
  7. ↑ Martínez-Delgado, David; Peñarrubia, Jorge; Gabany, R. Jay; Trujillo, Ignacio; Majewski, Steven R.; Pohlen, M. (December 2008). "The Ghost of a Dwarf Galaxy: Fossils of the Hierarchical Formation of the Nearby Spiral Galaxy NGC 5907". The Astrophysical Journal. 689 (1): 184–193. arXiv: 0805.1137 . Bibcode:2008ApJ...689..184M. doi:10.1086/592555. ISSN   0004-637X.
  8. ↑ Müller, Oliver; Vudragović, Ana; Bílek, Michal (2019-12-01). "Hunting ghosts: the iconic stellar stream(s) around NGC 5907 under scrutiny". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 632: L13. arXiv: 1911.12577 . Bibcode:2019A&A...632L..13M. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201937077. ISSN   0004-6361.
  9. ↑ van Dokkum, Pieter; Gilhuly, Colleen; Bonaca, Ana; Merritt, Allison; Danieli, Shany; Lokhorst, Deborah; Abraham, Roberto; Conroy, Charlie; Greco, Johnny P. (September 2019). "Dragonfly Imaging of the Galaxy NGC 5907: A Different View of the Iconic Stellar Stream". The Astrophysical Journal Letters. 883 (2): L32. arXiv: 1906.11260 . Bibcode:2019ApJ...883L..32V. doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/ab40c9 . ISSN   2041-8205.
  10. 1 2 3 Israel, Gian Luca; Belfiore, Andrea; Stella, Luigi; Esposito, Paolo; Casella, Piergiorgio; De Luca, Andrea; Marelli, Martino; Papitto, Alessandro; Perri, Matteo; Puccetti, Simonetta; Rodríguez Castillo, Guillermo A.; Salvetti, David; Tiengo, Andrea; Zampieri, Luca; D’Agostino, Daniele; Greiner, Jochen; Haberl, Frank; Novara, Giovanni; Salvaterra, Ruben; Turolla, Roberto; Watson, Mike; Wilms, Joern; Wolter, Anna (24 Feb 2017). "An accreting pulsar with extreme properties drives an ultraluminous x-ray source in NGC 5907". Science. 355 (6327): 817–819. arXiv: 1609.07375 . Bibcode:2017Sci...355..817I. doi:10.1126/science.aai8635. PMID   28219970. S2CID   206653306.
  11. ↑ Belfiore, Andrea; Salvaterra, Ruben; Sidoli, Lara; Israel, Gian Luca; Stella, Luigi; De Luca, Andrea; Mereghetti, Sandro; Esposito, Paolo; Pintore, Fabio; D'Aì, Antonino; Rodrìguez Castillo, Guillermo; Walton, Dominic J.; Fürst, Felix; Magistrali, Danilo; Wolter, Anna (2024-04-10). "The Orbit of NGC 5907 ULX-1". The Astrophysical Journal. 965 (1): 78. arXiv: 2405.04574 . Bibcode:2024ApJ...965...78B. doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/ad320a . ISSN   0004-637X.
  12. ↑ Miura, Daiki; Kobayashi, Shogo B.; Yamaguchi, Hiroya (2024-06-20). "Phase-dependent Spectral Shape Changes in the Ultraluminous X-Ray Pulsar NGC 5907 ULX1". The Astrophysical Journal. 968 (2): 95. arXiv: 2404.19300 . Bibcode:2024ApJ...968...95M. doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/ad4451 . ISSN   0004-637X.
  13. ↑ Holmberg, Erik (1937). "A Study of Double and Multiple Galaxies Together with Inquiries into some General Metagalactic Problems". Annals of the Observatory of Lund. 6: 1. Bibcode:1937AnLun...6....1H.
  14. ↑ Garcia, A. M. (1993). "General study of group membership. II. Determination of nearby groups". Astronomy and Astrophysics Supplement Series. 100: 47. Bibcode:1993A&AS..100...47G.
  15. ↑ Humason, M. L.; Minkowski, R. (1940). "A Supernova in NGC 5907". Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. 52 (306): 146. Bibcode:1940PASP...52..146H. doi: 10.1086/125149 .
  16. ↑ Barbon, R.; Buondí, V.; Cappellaro, E.; Turatto, M. (1999). "The Asiago Supernova Catalogue - 10 years after". Astronomy and Astrophysics Supplement Series. 139 (3): 531. arXiv: astro-ph/9908046 . Bibcode:1999A&AS..139..531B. doi: 10.1051/aas:1999404 .
  17. ↑ "SN 1940A". Transient Name Server. IAU . Retrieved 2 January 2025.
  18. 1 2 "Your NED Search Results". ned.ipac.caltech.edu. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
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