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Messier 85

Galaxy Messier 85 by Hubble Space Telescope

Coma Berenices

12^h25^m 24.0^s[1]

+18° 11′ 28″^[1]

729 ± 2 km/s^[1]

60 ± 4 Mly (18.5 ± 1.2 Mpc)^[2]

9.1^[3]

SA(s)0⁺ pec^[1]/E₂^[4]

36.99 kiloparsecs (120,600 light-years)^[1][5]
(diameter; 2MASS total aperture)

7′.1 × 5′.5^[1]

Messier 85 (also known as M85orNGC 4382orPGC 40515orISD 0135852) is a lenticular galaxy, or elliptical galaxy for other authors,^[4] 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.^[1][5]

Pierre Méchain discovered M85 in 1781. It is within the outskirts of the Virgo cluster, and is relatively isolated.^[6]

Properties[edit]

M85 is extremely poor in neutral hydrogen^[7] 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,^[7] 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.^[8] 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.^[6] It is likely transitioning from being a lenticular galaxy into an elliptical galaxy.^[6]

While indirect methods imply that Messier 85 should contain a central supermassive black hole of around 100 million solar masses,^[9] velocity dispersion observations imply that the galaxy may entirely lack a central massive black hole.^[10]

M85 is interacting with the nearby spiral galaxy NGC 4394, and a small elliptical galaxy called MCG 3-32-38.^[11]

Compared to other early-type galaxies, M85 emits a relatively smaller proportion of X-rays.^[6]

Novae and Supernovae[edit]

The type I supernova, SN 1960R was discovered in M85 on December 20, 1960 and reached an apparent magnitude of 11.7 (its effect in the telescope-resolvable sky to outshine most red dwarves a million times closer).

This galaxy has also been the host of the first luminous red nova identified as such, M85 OT2006-1. It was discovered on January 7 of 2006 and took place on the outskirts of this galaxy.^[12]

On 25 June 2020, the ATLAS telescope in Hawaii spotted type Ia supernova SN 2020nlb in M85, which reached a peak magnitude of 12.0. ^{[13] [14] [15]}

See also[edit]

• List of Messier objects

References[edit]

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Messier 85.

• 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.

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