Centaurus Cluster

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

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.

Centaurus Cluster
Observation data (Epoch J2000)
Constellation(s)	Centaurus
Right ascension	12h 48m 51.8s[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 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