Galaxy NGC 4697

NGC 4696
NGC 4696: Combination of images taken with Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). © NASA, ESA, C. Sarazin, B. Boizelle, Gladys Kober [261]

History

William Herschel sweeped with his 18.7-inch reflecting telescope the sky and on 24 April 1784 and found a bright nebula which he logged as I 39 and described as follows: «Very bright, very large, suddenly much brighter in the middle, resolvable nucleus.» [463]

Physical Properties

NGC 4697 is the primary member of the NGC 4697 group of galaxies. This massive elliptical galaxy is slightly larger than the Andromeda galaxy and distorts its neighbors with its gravitational influence. By studying the motion stars close to the galaxy’s center one was able to identify a supermassive black hole with roughly 100 million solar masses in the heart of the galaxy. [261]

Revised+Historic NGC/IC Version 22/9, © 2022 Dr. Wolfgang Steinicke [277]
Designation NGC 4697
Type Gx (E6)
Right Ascension (J2000.0) 12h 48m 35.8s
Declination (J2000.0) -05° 48' 00"
Diameter 7.2 × 4.7 arcmin
Photographic (blue) magnitude 10.1 mag
Visual magnitude 9.2 mag
Surface brightness 13.0 mag·arcmin-2
Position Angle 70°
Redshift (z) 0.004140
Distance derived from z 17.49 Mpc
Metric Distance 11.650 Mpc
Dreyer Description vB, L, lE 45° ±, smbMN
Identification, Remarks WH I 39; h 1436; GC 3227; MCG -1-33-10; UGCA 300

Finder Chart

The galaxy NGC 4697 is located in the constellation Virgo. It can best be observed from January to June.

Finder Chart Galaxy NGC 4697
Galaxy NGC 4697 in constellation Virgo. Charts created using SkySafari 6 Pro and STScI Digitized Sky Survey. Limiting magnitudes: Constellation chart ~6.5 mag, DSS2 close-ups ~20 mag. [149, 160]

Objects Within a Radius of 15°

References