Messier 85

Messier 85 (also known as M85 or NGC 4382 or PGC 40515 or ISD 0135852) is a lenticular galaxy, or elliptical galaxy for other authors,^[4] in the Coma Berenices constellation. It is 60 million light-years away, and has a diameter of about 36.99 kiloparsecs (120,600 light-years) across.^[1][5]

Messier 85
Galaxy Messier 85 by Hubble Space Telescope
Observation data (J2000 epoch)
Constellation	Coma Berenices
Right ascension	12h 25m 24.0528s[1]
Declination	+18° 11′ 27.888″[1]
Redshift	729 ± 2 km/s[1]
Distance	60 ± 4 Mly (18.5 ± 1.2 Mpc)[2]
Apparent magnitude (V)	9.1[3]
Characteristics
Type	SA(s)0+ pec[1]/E2[4]
Size	36.99 kiloparsecs (120,600 light-years)[1][5] (diameter; 2MASS total aperture)
Apparent size (V)	7′.1 × 5′.5[1]
Other designations
NGC 4382, UGC 7508, PGC 40515[1]

Pierre Méchain discovered M85 in 1781. It is within the outskirts of the Virgo Cluster, and is relatively isolated.^[6]

Properties

M85 is extremely poor in neutral hydrogen^[7] and has a very complex outer structure with shells and ripples that are thought to have been caused by a merger with another galaxy that took place between 4 and 7 billion years ago,^[7] as well as a relatively young (<3 billion years old) stellar population on its centermost region, some of it in a ring, that may have been created by a late starburst.^[8] Like other massive, early-type galaxies, it has different populations of globular clusters. Aside from the typical "red" and "blue" populations, there is also a population with intermediate colors and an even redder population.^[6] It is likely transitioning from being a lenticular galaxy into an elliptical galaxy.^[6]

While indirect methods imply that Messier 85 should contain a central supermassive black hole of around 100 million solar masses,^[9] velocity dispersion observations imply that the galaxy may entirely lack a central massive black hole.^[10]

M85 is interacting with the nearby spiral galaxy NGC 4394, and a small elliptical galaxy called MCG 3-32-38.^[11]

Compared to other early-type galaxies, M85 emits a relatively smaller proportion of X-rays.^[6]

Novae and Supernovae

Two supernovae and one luminous red nova have been observed in M85:

• SN 1960R (Type Ia, mag. 13.5), was discovered by Howard S. Gates on 20 December 1960,^[12] and independently discovered by Leonida Rosino (bio-it) on 18 January 1961.^[13]

• M85 OT2006-1 was discovered on the outskirts of the galaxy, by the Lick Observatory Supernova Search (LOSS) on 7 January 2006. It was classified as a luminous red nova, the first to be identified as such.^[14]
• SN 2020nlb (Type Ia, mag. 17.436) was discovered by the ATLAS telescope in Hawaii on 25 June 2020.^[15][16] This supernova got as bright as magnitude 12.^[17]

Location of M85

See also

• List of Messier objects