NGC 3079, Spiral Galaxy

Spiral Galaxy NGC 3079 - Supernova 2001 ci

Spiral Galaxy NGC 3079
A 10 minute exposure with an SBIG ST-9E CCD camera taken thru our 20 inch F/8.1 telescope taken on 5/16/01 at 4:00 UT.

Supernova 2001 ci:

Discovered April 17th, 2001, by the LOTOSS supernova search group.

Magnitude 19.0 at discovery
Type: Ic.
The supernova is magnitude 16.6 in the Kopernik image.
This supernova spent a lot of time as the "Possible supernova in NGC 3079". It was thought to be a dim type II, or an Eta Carini type variable star, but it has turned out to be a very dim type Ic.

Quote from IAU Bulletin 7618:

"B. Swift, W. D. Li, and A. V. Filippenko, University of California at Berkeley, report............ the absolute magnitude of the new star is only about -12.7, similar to the type-IIn Supernova 1997bs; this may be a super-outburst of a luminous blue variable star rather than a genuine supernova. Other explanations for the apparent faintness of this new star is that it is intrinsically faint, or suffers from huge amount of extinction in the very dusty host galaxy, or both."

Quote from IAU Bulletin 7638:

"A. V. Filippenko and R. Chornock, University of California at Berkeley, report that a CCD spectrum (range 390-1000 nm), obtained on May 30 with the Keck-II 10-m reflector, reveals that the 'possible supernova' in NGC 3079 (cf. IAUC 7618) is indeed a supernova, of type Ic, about 2-3 weeks past maximum brightness. The spectral shape is similar to that of SN 1990U at 12 days past maximum (Matheson et al. 2001, A.J. 121, 1648), but extinguished by 5-6 mag at visual wavelengths."

Follow this Link to a NASA Web site on supernovas. It has a very nice animation and a description of what these objects are.

Spiral Galaxy NGC 3810:

Dreyer's description in the New General Catalog (NGC):

"Very bright, large, moderately extended 135°."

Quote from The Deep Sky Field Guide to Uranometria 2000:

"Bright, peanut-shaped bar: 1.4 arc min x 0.3 arc min with dark lanes on one side. Almost edge-on and probably similar to NGC 4631.

NGC 3079 in the constellation of Ursa Major is a peculiar nearly edge-on Spiral Galaxy with a violent bipolar outflow of gas from the nucleus, a "galactic superwind" (Filippenko & Sargent 1992). These "superwinds" (Heckman, Armus, & Miley 1990) are thought to arise from the collective energy deposition and expulsion of matter from massive stars and supernovae in "starburst" systems. The center of NGC 3079 also harbors an Active Galactic Nucleus (black hole?). It has large amounts of dust and dark molecular clouds irregularly distributed throughout its disk and reddening toward its nucleus. This "starburst galaxy" is also an infrared, radio, and X-ray source.

Based on the published red shift, (and a Hubble Constant of 62 Km/sec per Mpc) a rough distance estimate for NGC 3079 is 59 million light years, with a diameter of about 136,000 light years.

NGC 3079
Magnitude: 10.6
Constellation: Ursa Major
RA: 10h 01m 58.2s
Dec: +55° 40' 43" Epoch 2000
Size (mins): 8.0' x 1.4'
Classification: Spiral Galaxy, Seyfert Type II

Click below to

George Normandin, KAS

May 17th, 2001

revised June 4th, 2001