NGC 1275

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NGC 1275

Hubble Space Telescope image of NGC 1275
Observation data (J2000 epoch)
Constellation Perseus
Right ascension 03h 19m 48.1s[1]
Declination +41° 30′ 42″[1]
Redshift 5264 ± 11 km/s[1]
z=0.017559[1]
Distance 237 million light-years
72.7 Mpc[2]
Type cD;pec;NLRG[1]
Apparent dimensions (V) 2′.2 × 1′.7[1]
Apparent magnitude (V) 12.6[1]
Other designations
Perseus A,[1] PGC 12429,[1] UGC 2669,[1] QSO B0316+413, Caldwell 24
See also: Galaxy, List of galaxies

NGC 1275 (also known as Perseus A or Caldwell 24) is a type 1.5 Seyfert galaxy[3] located around 237 million light-years away[2] in the direction of the constellation Perseus. NGC 1275 corresponds to the radio galaxy Perseus A and is situated near the centre of the large Perseus Cluster of galaxies.

Dynamics

Hubble Space Telescope image of the center of NGC 1275

NGC 1275 consists of two galaxies, a central type-cD galaxy in the Perseus Cluster, and a so-called "high velocity system" (HVS) which lies in front of it. The HVS is moving at 3000 km/s[4] towards the dominant system, and is believed to be merging with the Perseus Cluster. The HVS is not affecting the cD galaxy as it lies at least 200 thousand light years from it.;[5] however tidal interactions are disrupting it and ram-pressure stripping produced by its interaction with the intracluster medium of Perseus is stripping its gas as well as producing large amounts of star formation within it[6]

The central cluster galaxy contains a massive network of spectral line emitting filaments,[7] which apparently are being dragged out by rising bubbles of relativistic plasma generated by the central active galactic nucleus.[8] Long gaseous filaments made up of threads of gas stretch out beyond the galaxy, into the multimillion-degree, X-ray–emitting gas that fills the cluster. The amount of gas contained in a typical thread is approximately one million times the mass of our own Sun. They are only 200 light-years wide, are often very straight, and extend for up to 20,000 light-years.[9]

The existence of the filaments poses a problem. As they are much cooler than the surrounding intergalactic cloud, how have they persisted for perhaps 100 million years? Why haven’t they warmed, dissipated or collapsed to form stars?[10][11] One possibility is that weak magnetic fields (about one-ten-thousandth the strength of Earth’s field) exert enough force on the ions within the threads to keep them together.[10][11]

NGC 1275 contains 13 billion solar masses of molecular hydrogen that seems to be infalling from Perseus' intracluster medium in a cooling flow, both feeding its active nucleus[12] and fueling significant amounts of star formation<ref name=O'Connell2008> O'Connell, Robert (2007). "Star Formation in the Perseus Cluster Cooling Flow". HST Proposal ID #11207. Cycle 16. Bibcode:2007hst..prop11207O. </ref>

A supermassive black hole with a mass 340 million times that of our Sun may be present in NGC 1275's center.[13]

Gallery

  • NGC 1275 multi-wavelength composite

  • Hubble Space Telescope 1.73′ view of NGC 1275

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 "NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database". Results for NGC 1275. Retrieved 2006-11-19. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Distance Results for NGC 1275". NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database. Retrieved 2010-03-31. 
  3. ↑ Ho, Luis C.; Filippenko, Alex V.; Sargent, Wallace L. W. (October 1997). "A Search for "Dwarf" Seyfert Nuclei. III. Spectroscopic Parameters and Properties of the Host Galaxies". Astrophysical Journal Supplement 112 (2): 315–390. arXiv:astro-ph/9704107. Bibcode:1997ApJS..112..315H. doi:10.1086/313041 
  4. ↑ Minkowski R., 1957, in IAU Symp 4, Radio astronomy, p107
  5. ↑ Gillmon K., Sanders J.S., Fabian A.C., An X-ray absorption analysis of the high-velocity system in NGC 1275, 2004, MNRAS, 348, 159
  6. ↑ Gallagher, John S., III; Lee, M.; Canning, R.; Fabian, A.; O'Connell, R. W.; Sanders, J.; Zweibel, E. (2010). "Dusty Gas and New Stars: Disruption of the High Velocity Intruder Galaxy Falling Towards NGC 1275". Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society 42: 552. Bibcode:2008ApJ...672..252L. doi:10.1086/523664. 
  7. ↑ Lynds R., Improved Photographs of the NGC1275 Phenomenon, 1970, ApJ, 159, L151
  8. ↑ Hatch N.A., Crawford C.S., Johnstone R.M., Fabian A.C.: On the origin and excitation of the extended nebula surrounding NGC1275, 2006, MNRAS, 367, 433
  9. ↑ Hubble Sees Magnetic Monster in Erupting Galaxy Newswise, Retrieved on August 21, 2008.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 A. C. Fabian, et al. (2008-08-21). "Magnetic support of the optical emission line filaments in NGC 1275". Nature 454 (7207): 968–970. arXiv:0808.2712. Bibcode:2008Natur.454..968F. doi:10.1038/nature07169. PMID 18719583. 
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Chang, Kenneth (2008-08-21). "Hubble Images Solve Galactic Filament Mystery". The New York Times. 
  12. ↑ Lim, Jeremy; Ao, Yi Ping (2008). "Radially Inflowing Molecular Gas in NGC 1275 Deposited by an X-Ray Cooling Flow in the Perseus Cluster". The Astrophysical Journal 672: 252–265. Bibcode:2008ApJ...672..252L. doi:10.1086/523664. 
  13. ↑ Wilman, R. J,; Edge, A. C.; Johnstone, R. M. (2005). "The nature of the molecular gas system in the core of NGC 1275". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 359 (2): 755–764. Bibcode:2005MNRAS.359..755W. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2005.08956.x. 

External links

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Coordinates: 03h 19m 48.1s, +41° 30′ 42″

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