NGC 4402 is a relatively near, edge-on

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''

located around 50 million light-years from Earth. It is in the constellation of Virgo within 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 ...

of galaxies. It can be seen when viewing

Markarian's Chain Markarian's Chain is a stretch of galaxies that forms part of the Virgo Cluster. When viewed from Earth, the galaxies lie along a smoothly curved line. Charles Messier first discovered two of the galaxies, M84 and M86, in 1781. The other galaxi ...

. NGC 4402 is roughly 55 thousand light-years wide and is moving away from Earth at around 232 kilometers per second. It is falling into the Virgo galaxy cluster. Images show evidence that the material it once contained to enable it to form stars has been stripped away in a process known as " ram-pressure stripping". This is due to NGC 4402's cooler gasses being struck by hot x-ray gasses coming from the middle of the Virgo galaxy cluster as it moves toward it. The evidence is as follows: *There is apparent truncation of the NGC 4402's dust disk. *An upward ''bowing'' of the dusty disk is apparent. This is caused by a ''wind'' of hot gas. *Light coming from the far side of the stellar disk appears dim and reddish. This may be because pressure coming from the cluster gas is being forced between the disk and the observer. *The bottom part of the main disk shows dust in the form of linear filaments. These are being ablated in a characteristic "outside-in" manner. NGC 4402 will likely transition into a jellyfish galaxy as it falls further towards the center of the galaxy cluster.

GALEX Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX or Explorer 83 or SMEX-7) was a NASA orbiting space telescope designed to observe the universe in ultraviolet wavelengths to measure the history of star formation in the universe. In addition to paving the way ...

observations of the galaxy do not appear to show trailing gas, dust and star formation streamers extending from the disc, indicating that the galaxy has likely begun to feel the effects of the ram pressure stripping only recently. NGC 4402 will likely lose a significant fraction of its star formation material to this process, rendering it an

anemic galaxy An anemic galaxy is a type of spiral galaxy characterized by a low contrast between its spiral arms and its disk. Etymology The term was coined in 1976 by the Canadian astronomer Sidney van den Bergh to classify galaxies that are an intermed ...

. One

supernova A supernova (: supernovae or supernovas) is a powerful and luminous explosion of a star. A supernova occurs during the last stellar evolution, evolutionary stages of a massive star, or when a white dwarf is triggered into runaway nuclear fusion ...

has been observed in NGC 4402 : SN 1976B (type unknown, mag. 16.5) was discovered by

Miklós Lovas This is a list of minor-planet discoverers credited by the Minor Planet Center with the discovery of one or several minor planets (such as near-Earth and main-belt asteroids, Jupiter trojans and distant objects). , the discovery of 612,011 num ...

on 28 February 1976.

Gallery

File:ESO-M87.jpg, NGC 4402 and other galaxies viewed through the Burrell Schmidt telescope. The black circles were put there to remove bright, foreground stars. File:MarkariansHunterWilson.jpg, NGC 4402 visible in an image of

. Click the image then move the cursor over it to reveal the location of NGC 4402. File:Ngc4402-hst-R814G606B435.jpg, NGC 4402 with color rendering

Gallery

See also

References

Further reading