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]
Apparent dimensions (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 neigbours. 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. "The Star Clusters of NGC 1313". APOD. 7 August 2009.
  5. Courtney Seligman. "NGC 1313 (= PGC 12286)". Celestial Atlas.
  6. "Unusual Starburst Galaxy NGC 1313". APOD. 30 March 2010.
  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. 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. arXiv:astro-ph/0702547. Bibcode:2007ApJ...658L..87P. 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. arXiv:astro-ph/9903129. Bibcode:1999ApJ...514..781M. 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" 778 (2). The Astrophysical Journal. arXiv:1310.0745. Bibcode:2013ApJ...778..163B. 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" 811 (1). The Astrophysical Journal. arXiv:1601.02628. Bibcode:2015ApJ...811L..11P. 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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