Messier 85 (also known as M85 or NGC 4382 or PGC 40515 or ISD 0135852) is a lenticular galaxy, or

elliptical galaxy An elliptical galaxy is a type of galaxy with an approximately ellipsoidal shape and a smooth, nearly featureless image. They are one of the three main galaxy morphological classification, classes of galaxy described by Edwin Hubble in his Hub ...

for other authors, in the Coma Berenices constellation. It is 60 million light-years away, and has a diameter of about across.

Pierre Méchain Pierre François André Méchain (; 16 August 1744 – 20 September 1804) was a French astronomer and surveyor who, with Charles Messier, was a major contributor to the early study of deep-sky objects and comets. Life Pierre Méchain was bo ...

discovered M85 in 1781. It is within the outskirts of the Virgo cluster, and is relatively isolated.

Properties

M85 is extremely poor in neutral hydrogen and has a very complex outer structure with shells and ripples that are thought to have been caused by a

merger Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of a company, business organization, or one of their operating units is transferred to or consolidated with another entity. They may happen through direct absorpt ...

with another galaxy that took place between 4 and 7 billion years ago, as well as a relatively young (<3 billion years old) stellar population on its centermost region, some of it in a ring, that may have been created by a late starburst. Like other massive, early-type galaxies, it has different populations of

globular cluster A globular cluster is a spheroidal conglomeration of stars that is bound together by gravity, with a higher concentration of stars towards its center. It can contain anywhere from tens of thousands to many millions of member stars, all orbiting ...

s. Aside from the typical "red" and "blue" populations, there is also a population with intermediate colors and an even redder population. It is likely transitioning from being a lenticular galaxy into an elliptical galaxy. While indirect methods imply that Messier 85 should contain a central

supermassive black hole A supermassive black hole (SMBH or sometimes SBH) is the largest type of black hole, with its mass being on the order of hundreds of thousands, or millions to billions, of times the mass of the Sun (). Black holes are a class of astronomical ...

of around 100 million

solar mass The solar mass () is a frequently used unit of mass in astronomy, equal to approximately . It is approximately equal to the mass of the Sun. It is often used to indicate the masses of other stars, as well as stellar clusters, nebulae, galaxie ...

es, velocity dispersion observations imply that the galaxy may entirely lack a central massive black hole. M85 is interacting with the nearby

spiral galaxy Spiral galaxies form a galaxy morphological classification, class of galaxy originally described by Edwin Hubble in his 1936 work ''The Realm of the Nebulae''

NGC 4394, and a small

called MCG 3-32-38. Compared to other early-type galaxies, M85 emits a relatively smaller proportion of

X-ray An X-ray (also known in many languages as Röntgen radiation) is a form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than those of ultraviolet rays and longer than those of gamma rays. Roughly, X-rays have a wavelength ran ...

Novae and Supernovae

* SN 1960R ( typeIa, mag. 13.5), was discovered by H. S. Gates on 20 December 1960, and independently discovered by Leonida Rosino (bio-it) on 18 January 1961. * M85 OT2006-1 was discovered on the outskirts of the galaxy, by the

Lick Observatory The Lick Observatory is an astronomical observatory owned and operated by the University of California. It is on the summit of Mount Hamilton (California), Mount Hamilton, in the Diablo Range just east of San Jose, California, United States. The ...

Supernova Search (LOSS) on 7 January 2006. It was classified as a

luminous red nova A luminous red nova (abbr. ''LRN'', pl. ''luminous red novae'', pl.abbr. ''LRNe'') is a stellar explosion thought to be caused by the merging of two stars. They are characterised by a distinct red colour, and a light curve that fades slowly with ...

, the first to be identified as such. * SN 2020nlb (type Ia, mag. 17.436) was discovered by the

ATLAS An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of world map, maps of Earth or of a continent or region of Earth. Advances in astronomy have also resulted in atlases of the celestial sphere or of other planets. Atlases have traditio ...

telescope in Hawaii on 25 June 2020. This supernova got as bright as magnitude 12. M85map

References

External links

*
SEDS Lenticular Galaxy M85
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Messier 085 Lenticular galaxies Virgo Cluster Coma Berenices 085 NGC objects 07508 40515 Astronomical objects discovered in 1781 Discoveries by Pierre Méchain

Properties

Novae and Supernovae

See also

References

External links