Messier 85 (also known as M85 or NGC 4382 or PGC 40515 or ISD 0135852) is a lenticular galaxy, or elliptical galaxy for other authors, in the Coma Berenices constellation. It is 60 million light-years away, and has a diameter of about 36.99 kiloparsecs (120,600 light-years) across.
Pierre Méchain 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 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 clusters. 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 of around 100 million solar masses, velocity dispersion observations imply that the galaxy may entirely lack a central massive black hole.
M85 is interacting with the nearby spiral galaxy NGC 4394, and a small elliptical galaxy called MCG 3-32-38.
Compared to other early-type galaxies, M85 emits a relatively smaller proportion of X-rays.
Novae and Supernovae
- SN 1960R (type Ia, mag. 13.5), was discovered by H. S. Gates on 20 December 1960, and independently discovered by Leonida Rosino on 18 January 1961.
- M85 has been the host of the first luminous red nova identified as such. On 7 January 7 the Lick Observatory Supernova Search (LOSS) discovered M85 OT2006-1 on the outskirts of the galaxy.
- SN 2020nlb (type Ia, mag. 17.436) was discovered by the ATLAS telescope in Hawaii on 25 June 2020. This supernova got as bright as magnitude 12.
See also
- List of Messier objects
References
External links
- Messier 85 on WikiSky: DSS2, SDSS, GALEX, IRAS, Hydrogen α, X-Ray, Astrophoto, Sky Map, Articles and images
- SEDS Lenticular Galaxy M85
- Merrifield, Michael. "M85 – Lenticular Galaxy". Deep Sky Videos. Brady Haran.
