DescriptionImages

Object name: NGC5171

Designation(s): NGC5171, NGC5176, NGC5177, NGC5178, NGC5179,

NGC 5171 is the brightest member of the NGC 5171 group of galaxies located in northeast Virgo about 330 million light-years distant. It is a subgroup of the very large galaxy cluster ZwCl 1327+1145 which is some 117 minutes of arc across (my field is only 33.4 minutes of arc across) and contains 449 members. It, in turn, is comprised of two subgroups, one of which is also about 320 million light-years distant though I found no size or galaxy count for it. The group is defined as open which means there is no central condensation but there are local ones such as the NGC 5171 group.

The NGC 5171 group is bright in X-ray emission which oddly isn't centered on any galaxy but is brightest in an area between NGC 5171, 5176 and 5179. A paper on it is at http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/full/2004MNRAS.355...11O .

NGC 5171 and 5176 are connected with an optical bridge of stars. Oddly, I found nothing on this, however (it doesn't match the X-ray emission). It would seem these two are likely interacting in some way. Oddly the brightest plume from NGC 5171 is to the south and not between these two galaxies. The article cited above does hint that NGC 5171 may be the result of the merger of two or more galaxies in the recent past. Of course, it is thought most major elliptical-like galaxies in groups like this are the result of mergers so this isn't exactly major news.

Due to space limitations, I didn't include names of all cluster members, only those for which NED has classified them as to type. The distance will tell you if it is a cluster member.

NGC 5171 was discovered by George "Jupiter" Hough on May 5, 1883: NGC 5176 and NGC 5177 were discovered by Ernst Hartwig on June 29, 1883: NGC 5178 was first recorded by William Temple on May 11, 1883 while NGC 5178 was found by Sherburne Burnham on May 5, 1883. All in 1883 but by 4 different astronomers. Two on the same day but by different astronomers who worked together at Dearborn Observatory in Chicago. Hough got his nickname because of his study of the Jovian system.

There are several quasars in the image and 4 asteroids. One is rather interesting, 2013 JF42. When I looked it up the minor planet center says of it "Wait for recovery survey". This usually means the asteroid's orbit wasn't determined well and it is now lost. Yet it is right where the prediction put it. From this, I am guessing my image was taken within a day or two of its discovery. I wasn't able to determine that date. The image was taken May 6, 2013 about 6 hours UT. The J in the provisional name indicates it was discovered sometime between May 1 and May 15th so this may explain why I could find it. We do know from its name it was the 1056th asteroid discovered during that 15 day period. (See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provisional_designation for how this is calculated.) At magnitude 20.9 (Minor Planet Center's estimate) it is just barely within my limits of detection unless I move the scope at a rate to match typical asteroids in the main belt. Due to the high compression of the annotated image, you may need to find its location there then blow up the lower compressed full image to see it. My normal limit is about 20.5 for asteroids without tracking on them. In this case, it was moving slow enough the trail was short so the asteroid was barely visible.

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10' RGB=2x10', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Related Designation(s):

2MASS J13292156+1144063, 2MASS J13292427+1147494, 2MASS J13292497+1146531, 2MASS J13292932+1137293, 2MASS J13293089+1144451, 2MASX J13292154+1144065, 2MASX J13292426+1147495, 2MASX J13292494+1146535, 2MASX J13292930+1137295, 2MASX J13293087+1144445, 2XMM J132921.5+114408, 2XMM J132924.2+114748, 2XMM J132929.2+113730, 2XMM J132930.9+114446, 2XMMp J132921.5+114407, 2XMMp J132924.1+114749, 2XMMp J132929.3+113729, 2XMMp J132930.9+114446, AGC 230366, ASK 410964.0, ASK 410973.0, ASK 411211.0, ASK 411213.0, CGCG 072-089, CGCG 072-090, CGCG 072-091, CGCG 072-093, CGCG 072-094, CGCG 1326.9+1200, CGCG 1326.9+1203, CGCG 1326.9+1204, CGCG 1327.0+1153, CGCG 1327.0+1201, CXO J132921.6+114407, CXO J132924.2+114748, CXO J132930.9+114445, ECO 04114, ECO 04115, ECO 04116, ECO 04118, ECO 04121, GALEXASC J132921.65+114403.3 , GALEXASC J132924.30+114749.4 , GALEXASC J132929.24+113729.1 , GALEXASC J132930.84+114445.2 , HDCE 0798 NED004, HDCE 0798 NED005, HDCE 0798 NED007, HDCE 0798 NED008, HOLM 521A, HOLM 521B, HOLM 522A, IRAS F13269+1202, LDCE 0978 NED004, LDCE 0978 NED005, LDCE 0978 NED007, LDCE 0978 NED008, MAPS-NGP O_498_0901158, MAPS-NGP O_498_0901429, MAPS-NGP O_498_0901497, MAPS-NGP O_498_0901899, MAPS-NGP O_498_0985539, MCG +02-34-019, MCG +02-34-020, MCG +02-34-021, MCG +02-34-022, MCG +02-34-023, MRK 1349, NGC 5171, NGC 5176, NGC 5177, NGC 5178, NGC 5179, NGC5171, NGC5176, NGC5177, NGC5178, NGC5179, NPM1G +12.0359, NPM1G +12.0361, NRGb 247.023, NRGb 247.024x, NRGb 247.026, NRGb 247.028, NRGb 247.032, NRGb 247.033, NSA 070626, NSA 070634, NSA 070696, NSA 070697, NSA 143529, NVSS J132929+113728, PGC 047337, PGC 047338, PGC 047339, PGC 047358, PGC 047363, PTF10fps HOST, SAFIRES J132924.30+114749.8, SAFIRES J132929.64+113729.7, SDSS J132921.56+114406.4, SDSS J132924.25+114749.3, SDSS J132924.26+114749.3, SDSS J132924.95+114653.3, SDSS J132924.96+114653.3, SDSS J132929.30+113729.1, SDSS J132929.31+113729.2, SDSS J132930.88+114444.9, SDSS J132930.88+114445.0, SDSS J132930.89+114445.1, SSTSL2 J132924.25+114749.1, UGC 08476, UGC 08478, USGC U537 NED04, USGC U537 NED05, USGC U537 NED07, USGC U537 NED08, USGC U537 NED09, UZC J132921.6+114406, UZC J132924.3+114751, UZC J132925.0+114653, UZC J132929.3+113729, UZC J132930.9+114445, UZC-CG 193 NED01, UZC-CG 193 NED02, UZC-CG 193 NED03, UZC-CG 193 NED04, WBL 447-004, WBL 447-005, WBL 447-006, WBL 447-007, WBL 447-008, [DZ2015] 600-01, [DZ2015] 600-03, [TTL2012] 019786, [TTL2012] 019794, [TTL2012] 037194, [TTL2012] 037195,