| NGC 4526 | |
| Type: | SAB(s)0° |
| Dist Ly: | 15.8Mpc |
| Appmag V: | 10.7 |
NGC 4526 (also listed as NGC 4560) is a lenticular galaxy with an embedded dusty disc, located approximately 55 million light-years from the Solar System in the Virgo constellation and discovered on 13 April 1784 by William Herschel.[1] Herschel observed it again on 28 December 1785, resulting in the galaxy being entered twice into the New General Catalogue.
The galaxy is seen nearly edge-on. The morphological classification is SAB(s)0°, which indicates a lenticular structure with a weak bar across the center and pure spiral arms without a ring. It belongs to the Virgo cluster and is one of the brightest known lenticular galaxies.In the galaxy's outer halo, globular cluster orbital velocities[2] indicate abnormal poverty of dark matter: only 43±18% of the mass within 5 effective radii.
The inner nucleus of this galaxy displays a rise in stellar orbital motion that indicates the presence of a central dark mass. The best fit model for the motion of molecular gas in the core region suggests there is a supermassive black hole with about (450 million) times the mass of the Sun. This is the first object to have its black-hole mass estimated by measuring the rotation of gas molecules around its centre with an astronomical interferometer (in this case the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy).
Two supernovae have been observed in NGC 4526:
