Mice Galaxies
Sign in to savetwo spiral galaxies in the constellation Coma Berenices
Key facts
- Constellation
- Coma Berenices
- Right ascension
- 12 46 10.08
- Declination
- +30 ° 43 ′ 52.3 ″
- Redshift
- 0.022 049
- Heliocentric radial velocity
- 6,610 km/s
- Galactocentric velocity
- 6,626 ± 1 km/s
- Distance
- 345.1 ± 24.14 Mly (105.8 ± 7.4 Mpc ) h , 0.6774 , ( Comoving ) , 326 Mly (99.95 Mpc ) h , 0.6774 , ( Light-travel )
- Group or cluster
- Coma Cluster
- Type
- Mult
- Size
- 352,120 ly × 190,150 ly, (107.96 kpc × 58.30 kpc), ( diameter ; "total" magnitude )
- Notable features
- Interacting galaxies
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Distance from Earth
- 101.5
- Image
- NGC4676.jpg
Show 9 more facts
- Commons category
- NGC 4676
- time of discovery or invention
- 1785-03-13
- radial velocity
- 6669
- catalog code
- Z 159-72
- right ascension
- 191.542417
- declination
- 30.731583
- redshift
- 0.0222
- apparent magnitude
- 14.1
- galaxy morphological type
- Sdm
Sources (1)
via Wikidata · CC0
~2 min read
Article
NGC 4676, or the Mice Galaxies, are two spiral galaxies in the constellation Coma Berenices. About 105.8 megaparsecs (345 million light-years) distant, they have begun the process of colliding and merging. Their "mice" name refers to the long tails produced by tidal action—the relative difference between gravitational pulls on the near and far parts of each galaxy—known here as a galactic tide. It is a possibility that both galaxies, which are members of the Coma Cluster, have experienced a collision, and will continue colliding until they coalesce.
The colors of the galaxies are peculiar. In NGC 4676A a core with some dark markings is surrounded by a bluish white remnant of spiral arms. The tail is unusual, starting out blue and terminating in a more yellowish color, despite the fact that the beginning of each arm in virtually every spiral galaxy starts yellow and terminates in a bluish color. NGC 4676B has a yellowish core and two arcs; arm remnants underneath are bluish as well.