NGC 4151

NGC 4151
Image of NGC 4151 from the 0.8m Schulman Telescope at the Mount Lemmon SkyCenter
Observation data (J2000 epoch)
ConstellationCanes Venatici
Right ascension12h 10m 32.6s[1]
Declination+39° 24′ 21″[1]
Redshift0.003262[2]
995 ± 3 km/s[1]
Distance15.8 ± 0.4 Mpc (51.5×10^6 ± 1.3×10^6 ly)[3]
Apparent magnitude (V)11.5[1]
Characteristics
Type(R')SAB(rs)ab,[1] Sy1[2]
Apparent size (V)6.4′ × 5.5′[1]
Other designations
UGC 7166,[1] PGC 38739[1]

NGC 4151 is an intermediate spiral Seyfert galaxy with weak inner ring structure located 15.8 megaparsecs (52 million light-years) from Earth[4] in the constellation Canes Venatici. The galaxy was first mentioned by William Herschel on March 17, 1787; it was one of the six Seyfert galaxies described in the paper [5] which defined the term. It is one of the nearest galaxies to Earth to contain an actively growing supermassive black hole.[6] The black hole would have a mass on the order of 2.5 million to 30 million solar masses.[7] It was speculated that the nucleus may host a binary black hole, with about 40 million and about 10 million solar masses respectively, orbiting with a 15.8-year period.[8] This is, however, still a matter of active debate.

Some astronomers nickname it the "Eye of Sauron" from its appearance.[9]

One supernova has been observed in NGC 4151: SN 2018aoq (Type II-P, mag 15.3).[10][11]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h "Results for NGC 4151". NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database. Retrieved 2007-03-27.
  2. ^ a b "NGC 4151". SIMBAD. Centre de données astronomiques de Strasbourg. Retrieved 2014-06-06.
  3. ^ Yuan, W.; Fausnaugh, M. M.; Hoffmann, S. L.; Macri, L. M.; Peterson, B. M.; Riess, A. G.; Bentz, M. C.; Brown, J. S.; Bontà, E. Dalla; Davies, R. I.; Rosa, G. De; Ferrarese, L.; Grier, C. J.; Hicks, E. K. S.; Onken, C. A.; Pogge, R. W.; Storchi-Bergmann, T.; Vestergaard, M. (2020). "The Cepheid Distance to the Seyfert 1 Galaxy NGC 4151". The Astrophysical Journal. 902 (1): 26. arXiv:2007.07888. Bibcode:2020ApJ...902...26Y. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/abb377. S2CID 220546047.
  4. ^ W. M. Keck Observatory (2014-11-26). "'Eye of Sauron' Provides New Way of Measuring Distances to Galaxies". W. M. Keck Observatory. Archived from the original on 2014-12-05. Retrieved 2014-11-27.
  5. ^ C. K. Seyfert (1943). "Nuclear Emission in Spiral Nebulae". Astrophysical Journal. 97: 28–40. Bibcode:1943ApJ....97...28S. doi:10.1086/144488.
  6. ^ "NGC 4151: An active black hole in the "Eye of Sauron"". Astronomy magazine. 2011-03-11. Archived from the original on 2019-03-29. Retrieved 2011-03-14.
  7. ^ Roberts, Caroline A.; Bentz, Misty C.; Vasiliev, Eugene; Valluri, Monica; Onken, Christopher A. (2021). "The Black Hole Mass of NGC 4151 from Stellar Dynamical Modeling". The Astrophysical Journal. 916 (1): 25. arXiv:2106.02758. Bibcode:2021ApJ...916...25R. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ac05b6. S2CID 235358825.
  8. ^ Bon; Jovanović; Marziani; Shapovalova; et al. (2012). "The First Spectroscopically Resolved Sub-parsec Orbit of a Supermassive Binary Black Hole". The Astrophysical Journal. 759 (2): 118–125. arXiv:1209.4524. Bibcode:2012ApJ...759..118B. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/759/2/118. S2CID 119257514.
  9. ^ Chandra X-ray Observatory (10 March 2011). "NGC 4151: An Active Black Hole in the "Eye of Sauron"". Chandra X-ray Center.
  10. ^ Transient Name Server entry for SN 2018aoq. Retrieved 5 January 2023.
  11. ^ Tsvetkov, D. Yu.; Pavlyuk, N. N.; Vozyakova, O. V.; Shatsky, N. I.; Tatarnikov, A. M.; Nikiforova, A. A.; Baklanov, P. V.; Blinnikov, S. I.; Ushakova, M. G.; Larionova, E. G.; Borman, G. A. (2021). "Type II-P Supernova SN 2018aoq in NGC 4151: Light Curves, Models, and Distance". Astronomy Letters. 47 (5): 291–306. doi:10.1134/S1063773721050078.