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Rare galaxy 40 EP

NGC 4579

RA 189.4313° · Dec 11.8182° · openngc

Real photograph of NGC 4579 📷 Real photo
Credit Line and Copyright Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona
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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
40 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Galaxy +14
  • Messier object +12
  • Outside our galaxy entirely +6
  • Spiral galaxy +5
  • On the zodiac +3
Total score 40

10 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Galaxy · +14
  • Outside our galaxy entirely · +6
  • Messier object · +12
  • Spiral galaxy · +5
  • On the zodiac · +3

Trivia

Hard to believe

  • Messier object. One of the 110 showpieces of the Messier list — catalogued as M58.

What it actually is

  • What it actually is. A galaxy: a gravitationally bound city of stars, gas and dark matter, turning so slowly that a single rotation takes hundreds of millions of years.
  • Spiral. A spiral galaxy. Those arms are not solid structures but traffic jams — density waves that stars drift into and out of as they orbit.

Sense of scale

  • In perspective. Deep in the extragalactic distance — further than the entire Virgo Cluster of galaxies.
  • Scale. Home to hundreds of billions of stars — a universe unto itself, and every one of those points of light could have planets.

Find it in the sky

  • How to spot it. At magnitude 10.3 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Virgo.
  • Northern sky. It rides the northern half of the sky — an easier target the further north you are.
  • Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around March — that's when to go looking.

Properties

constellation
Vir
dist ly
78502656.0278
dso type
G
hubble
Sb
mag
10.3
messier
yes
messier number
058
name
NGC 4579
radial velocity kms
1680
redshift
0.0056
size arcmin
5.01
surface brightness
22.49

About NGC 4579

NGC 4579 is a rare galaxy. It lies about 78,502,656 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Vir and shines at apparent magnitude 10.3.

A galaxy: a gravitationally bound city of stars, gas and dark matter, turning so slowly that a single rotation takes hundreds of millions of years.

How to see it

Look for NGC 4579 in the constellation Vir. At apparent magnitude 10.3, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, NGC 4579 is best seen from a dark site away from city lights, and when it is above the horizon depends on your latitude and the time of year. The visibility panel above works out tonight's viewing window for your saved location.

Why NGC 4579 is a rare galaxy

NGC 4579 scores 40 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 10 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Galaxy, Outside our galaxy entirely, Messier object, Spiral galaxy and On the zodiac — each earned for a real, measurable property of the object. Rarity on Spacedle is never random: the more remarkable an object's astrophysics, the more badges it collects, the higher it scores, and the rarer it ranks.