Centaurus Cluster

Not to be confused with Hydra–Centaurus Supercluster or Centaurus A/M83 Group.

Centaurus Cluster
Observation data (Epoch J2000)
Constellation(s)	Centaurus
Right ascension	12^h 48^m 51.8^s[1]
Declination	−41° 18′ 21″[1]
Brightest member	NGC 4696
Number of galaxies	~100[1]
Richness class	0[2]
Bautz–Morgan classification	I–II [2]
Redshift	0.01140 (3 418 km/s)[1]
Distance	52.4 Mpc (170.9 Mly) h^−1 0.705[1]
X-ray flux	15.7×10^−11 erg s^−1 cm^−2 (0.5–2 keV) [1]
Other designations
Abell 3526[1]

The Centaurus Cluster (A3526) is a cluster of hundreds of galaxies, located approximately 170 million light-years away in the Centaurus constellation. The brightest member galaxy is the elliptical galaxy NGC 4696 (~11m). The Centaurus cluster shares its supercluster, the Hydra–Centaurus Supercluster, with IC4329 Cluster and Hydra Cluster.

The cluster consists of two different sub-groups of galaxies with different velocities.^[3] Cen 30 is the main subgroup containing NGC 4696. Cen 45 which is centered on NGC 4709, is moving at 1500 km/s relative to Cen 30,^[3] and is believed to be merging with the main cluster.^[4]

Gallery

• 
  NGC 4696: a cosmic question mark
• 
  Chandra X-ray image showing the inner 6.7 arcminutes of the core of the Centaurus Cluster. This image shows the hot intracluster medium, at temperatures of a few tens of million kelvins.
• 
  Region around NGC 4709 (large galaxy in the middle) in the western part of the Centaurus Cluster.
• 
  East part of the Centaurus Cluster with NGC 4729, NGC 4730 and NGC 4743.

See also

• Abell catalogue
• List of Abell clusters
• X-ray astronomy

References

1. "NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database". Results for Centaurus Cluster. Retrieved 2006-10-19.
2. Abell, George O.; Corwin, Harold G. Jr.; Olowin, Ronald P. (May 1989). "A catalog of rich clusters of galaxies". Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series. 70 (May 1989): 1–138. Bibcode:1989ApJS...70....1A. doi:10.1086/191333. ISSN 0067-0049.
3. Lucey J. R.; Currie M. J.; Dickens R. J. (1986). "The Centaurus cluster of galaxies. II – The bimodal velocity structure". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 221 (2): 453–472. Bibcode:1986MNRAS.221..453L. doi:10.1093/mnras/221.2.453.
4. Churazov, E.; Gilfanov, M.; Forman, W.; Jones, C. (1999). "Evidence for Merging in the Centaurus Cluster". The Astrophysical Journal. 520 (1): 105. arXiv:astro-ph/9802166. Bibcode:1999ApJ...520..105C. doi:10.1086/307421. ISSN 0004-637X. S2CID 18552647.

External links

• The Centaurus Cluster on WikiSky: DSS2, SDSS, GALEX, IRAS, Hydrogen α, X-Ray, Astrophoto, Sky Map, Articles and images