Lenticular Galaxy NGC 4753
NGC 4753 resides around 60 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo and was first discovered by the astronomer William Herschel in 1784.
It is a member of the NGC 4753 Group of galaxies within the Virgo II Cloud, which comprises roughly 100 galaxies and galaxy clusters.
This galaxy is believed to be the result of a galactic merger with a nearby dwarf galaxy roughly 1.3 billion years ago. NGC 4753’s distinct dust lanes around its nucleus are believed to have been accreted from this merger event.
It is now believed that most of the mass in the galaxy lies in a slightly flattened spherical halo of dark matter.
Dark matter is a form of matter that cannot currently be observed directly, but is thought to comprise about 85% of all matter in the Universe. It is referred to as ‘dark’ because it does not appear to interact with the electromagnetic field, and therefore does not seem to emit, reflect or refract light.
This object is also of scientific interest to test different theories of formation of lenticular galaxies, given its low-density environment and complex structure.
Video Source: Pan: NGC 4753 from HubbleWebbESA on Youtube ⁄ CC BY
