NGC 4123 is a modest-sized, strongly-

barred spiral galaxy A barred spiral galaxy is a spiral galaxy with a central bar-shaped structure composed of stars. Bars are found in about two thirds of all spiral galaxies in the local universe, and generally affect both the motions of stars and interstellar gas ...

located away in the equatorial

constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The first constellati ...

Virgo Virgo may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Virgo (film), a 1970 Egyptian film * Virgo (character), several Marvel Comics characters * Virgo Asmita, a character in the manga ''Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas'' * ''Virgo'' (album), by Virgo Four, ...

. It was discovered February 25, 1784 by

William Herschel Frederick William Herschel ( ; ; 15 November 1738 – 25 August 1822) was a German-British astronomer and composer. He frequently collaborated with his younger sister and fellow astronomer Caroline Herschel. Born in the Electorate of Hanover ...

. This is a member of the

Virgo cluster The Virgo Cluster is a cluster of galaxies whose center is 53.8 ± 0.3 Mly (16.5 ± 0.1 Mpc) away in the Virgo constellation. Comprising approximately 1,300 (and possibly up to 2,000) member galaxies, the cluster forms the heart of the larger ...

, and it belongs to a group of three galaxies. A companion galaxy, NGC 4116, lies at an

angular separation Angular distance or angular separation is the measure of the angle between the orientation of two straight lines, rays, or vectors in three-dimensional space, or the central angle subtended by the radii through two points on a sphere. When t ...

of to the southwest. There is no indication of an interaction between the two galaxies. The third member of the group is

NGC 4179 NGC 4179 is a lenticular galaxy located in the constellation Virgo. It was discovered by William Herschel on January 14, 1784. It is a member of the NGC 4179 Group of galaxies, which is a member of the Virgo II Groups, a series of galaxies and ...

The morphological classification of NGC 4123 is SBx(rs)ab, which indicates this is a spiral galaxy with a central X-shaped bar (SBx) encircled by an incomplete ring structure (rs) and moderate to tightly wound

spiral arm Spiral arms are a defining feature of spiral galaxies. They manifest as spiral-shaped regions of enhanced brightness within the galactic disc. Typically, spiral galaxies exhibit two or more spiral arms. The collective configuration of these arms i ...

s (ab). The plane of the galaxy is inclined at an angle of 46.9° to the line of sight from the Earth. It lacks a large spheroidal

bulge __NOTOC__ Bulge may refer to: Astronomy and geography *Bulge (astronomy), a tightly packed group of stars at the center of a spiral galaxy *Equatorial bulge, a bulge around the equator of a planet due to rotation *Tharsis bulge, vast volcanic pla ...

at the core, showing only a luminous point-like source. Blue knots in the outer spiral arms indicate that

star formation Star formation is the process by which dense regions within molecular clouds in interstellar space—sometimes referred to as "stellar nurseries" or "star-forming regions"—Jeans instability, collapse and form stars. As a branch of astronomy, sta ...

is ongoing. The galaxy has a stellar mass of with a star formation rate of . The atomic gas in the galaxy has a mass of . Radio emission has been detected from an HII nucleus, which is consistent with it having a weak

active galactic nucleus An active galactic nucleus (AGN) is a compact region at the center of a galaxy that emits a significant amount of energy across the electromagnetic spectrum, with characteristics indicating that this luminosity is not produced by the stars. Such e ...

. If there is a

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 ...

at the core, it has an estimated mass of .

References

Further reading