Spiral Galaxies NGC 5468 and NGC 5472 in Virgo
Supernova 2002cr

Supernova 2002cr:

• Discovered: May 1, 2002, by Reiki Kushida of Japan.
• Magnitude 16.5 at discovery, and 15.2 in the Kopernik image.
• Type Ia

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 Galaxies NGC 5468 and NGC 5472 in the Constellation of Virgo have nearly the same red shift and form a non-interacting pair. NGC 5468 was also the host of Type Ia Supernova 1999cp.

NGC 5468:

Quote from The Carnegie Atlas Of Galaxies:

Two thin principal arms can be followed from the center outward, one for half a revolution and the other for a quarter revolution, before they branch into several thin fragments winding through the outer disk. The resulting arm pattern is open. Although the arms are multiple, they remain thin and do not cover a large area of the outer disk because they are so thin.

Using the red shift data from the “NASA Extra-galactic Data Base(NED)”, (and a Hubble Constant of 62 Km per sec., per Megaparsec), one can calculate a rough distance estimate for this pair of galaxies, and SN 2002cr, of about 150 million light years.

NGC 5468 Magnitude: 12.2 Constellation: Virgo RA: 14h 06m 34.9s Dec: -05° 27' 13" Epoch 2000 Size (mins): 2.6' x 2.4' Classification: SAB(rs)cd        Mixed Barred Non-barred Spiral galaxy, Mixed inner-ring, S-shaped Dreyer description in the NGC:        "Faint, large, round, very gradually brighter middle, 9th magnitude star southeast 4'."

NGC 5472 Magnitude: 15.2 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

May 8th, 2002