NGC 1313

NGC 1313

A Very Large Telescope (VLT) image of NGC 1313.
Credit: ESO.
Observation data (J2000.0 epoch)
Constellation Reticulum
Right ascension 03h 18m 15.4s [1]
Declination −66° 29′ 50″ [1]
Distance 12.886 Mly [1]
Characteristics
Apparent size (V) 9.1 x 7.1 arcmin [1]
Other designations
Topsy Turvy Galaxy, PGC 12286

NGC 1313 (also known as the Topsy Turvy Galaxy[2]) is a field galaxy[3] and a barred spiral galaxy[4] discovered by the Scottish astronomer James Dunlop on 27 September 1826.[5] It has a diameter of about 50,000 light-years, or one-third the size of the Milky Way.[6]

Features

NGC 1313 has a strikingly uneven shape and its axis of rotation is not exactly in its centre.[7] NGC 1313 also shows strong starburst activity[8] and associated supershells.[9] NGC 1313 is dominated by scattered patches of intense star formation, which gives the galaxy a rather ragged appearance.[10] The uneven shape, the ragged appearance and the strong starburst can all be explained by a galactic collision in the past.[11] However, NGC 1313 seems to be an isolated galaxy and has no direct neighbours. Therefore, it is not clear whether it has swallowed a small companion in its past.[2]

Observations has shown that young, blue stars are scattered across the galaxy.[12] This is evidence of infant mortality in which the young open clusters quickly became gravitationally "unglued" and scattered their resident stars into the galaxy.[13] The galaxy bears some resemblance to the Magellanic Clouds[14] and hosts two ultraluminous X-ray sources, called NGC 1313 X-1 and X-2.[15] The former is a rare intermediate-mass black hole.[16][17]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database". Results for NGC 1313. Retrieved 8 Dec 2008.
  2. 1 2 "The Topsy-Turvy Galaxy NGC 1313". ESO. 23 November 2006.
  3. ↑ "Taking a narrow view of lopsided galaxy". Gemini Observatory. 21 May 2010. Retrieved 22 February 2016.
  4. ↑ Nemiroff, R.; Bonnell, J., eds. (7 August 2009). "The Star Clusters of NGC 1313". Astronomy Picture of the Day. NASA.
  5. ↑ Courtney Seligman. "NGC 1313 (= PGC 12286)". Celestial Atlas.
  6. ↑ Nemiroff, R.; Bonnell, J., eds. (30 March 2010). "Unusual Starburst Galaxy NGC 1313". Astronomy Picture of the Day. NASA.
  7. ↑ Materne, J. (April 1979). "The structure of nearby groups of galaxies - Quantitative membership probabilities". Astronomy and Astrophysics. 74 (2): 235–243. Bibcode:1979A&A....74..235M.
  8. ↑ "VLT Image of Starburst Galaxy NGC 1313". European Southern Observatory. 23 November 2006. Retrieved 22 February 2016.
  9. ↑ Suzuki; et al. (2013). "AKARI view of star formation in NGC 1313". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 554: A8. Bibcode:2013A&A...554A...8S. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201220294.
  10. ↑ "NGC 1313". Astrosurf. 22 October 2006.
  11. ↑ "Tumult in NGC 1313" (in German). Wissenschaft.de. 28 November 2006.
  12. ↑ "Hubble Sees Star Cluster "Infant Mortality"". NASA. 10 January 2007. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
  13. ↑ Anne Pellerin; Martin Meyer; Jason Harris; Daniela Calzetti. "Stellar Clusters in NGC 1313: Evidence of Infant Mortality". The Astrophysical Journal. 653 (2): L87–L90. Bibcode:2007ApJ...658L..87P. arXiv:astro-ph/0702547 Freely accessible. doi:10.1086/515437.
  14. ↑ Mollá, Mercedes; Roy, Jean-René (1 April 1999). "Modeling the Radial Abundance Distribution of the Transition Galaxy NGC 1313". The Astrophysical Journal. 514: 781–786. Bibcode:1999ApJ...514..781M. arXiv:astro-ph/9903129 Freely accessible. doi:10.1086/306982.
  15. ↑ Matteo Bachetti; et al. "The Ultraluminous X-Ray Sources NGC 1313 X-1 and X-2: A Broadband Study with NuSTAR and XMM-Newton". The Astrophysical Journal. 778 (2): 163. Bibcode:2013ApJ...778..163B. arXiv:1310.0745 Freely accessible. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/778/2/163.
  16. ↑ Dheeraj Pasham; et al. (2015). "Evidence for High-Frequency QPOs with a 3:2 Frequency Ratio from a 5000 Solar Mass Black Hole". The Astrophysical Journal. 811 (1): L11. Bibcode:2015ApJ...811L..11P. arXiv:1601.02628 Freely accessible. doi:10.1088/2041-8205/811/1/L11.
  17. ↑ "Intermediate-Mass Black Hole 5,000 Times Mass of Sun". Sci-News.com. 23 September 2015. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
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