Spiral Galaxies NGC 4038 and NGC 4039 in Corvus
aka "The Antennae" & Arp 244
Supernova 2004gt

Supernova 2004gt:

• Discovered: December 12, 2004, by Berto Monard of South Africa.
• Magnitude 14.9 at discovery.
• The supernova is in a H-II region in the northern nucleus.
• Type Ic

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

Galaxies NGC 4038 and NGC 4039 in the Constellation of Corvus are the famous "Antennae" (HST Image), a beautiful interacting pair of galaxies with long tails of stars following them. Toomre and Toomre (1972) computer simulated this well-known interacting pair, with its tidal plumes, in their famous N-body calculation. They gave the first convincing proof that such morphological features as tails are due to tidal interactions in a close encounter. This interacting pair is in a loose group of five other NGC galaxies and several fainter galaxies that may be kinematically associated.

NGC 4038 Magnitude: 10.9 Constellation: Corvus RA: 12h 01m 52.8s Dec: -18° 51' 54" Epoch 2000 Size (mins): 5.3' x 3.1' Classification: SB(s)m pec        Barred Spiral galaxy, S-shaped, pecular Dreyer description in the NGC:        "Pretty bright, considerably large, round, very gradually brighter middle."

NGC 4039 Magnitude: 11.1 RA: 14h 06m 55.0s Dec: -05° 27' 41" Epoch 2000 Size (mins): 1.3' x 0.3' Classification: SA(r)ab?        Spiral Galaxy, Inner Ring (uncertain) Deep Sky Field Guide to U2000:     "Small, bright, elongated nucleus not in center of bright lens 0.25x0.1 arc min."

Click below to

George Normandin, KAS

April 30th, 2005