NGC 3341 is a peculiar galaxy located in the constellation of Sextans. It is located 415 million light years away from Earth and has a diameter of 170,000 light years.[1] It was discovered by Albert Marth on March 22, 1865, who described the object as "very faint and small".[2] The galaxy is classified a minor galaxy merger system, with two known companions revealed as offset active galactic nuclei (AGN).
| NGC 3341 | |
|---|---|
 The peculiar disk galaxy, NGC 3341. | |
| Observation data (J2000 epoch) | |
| Constellation | Sextans |
| Right ascension | 10h 42m 31.49s |
| Declination | +05° 02′ 38.08″ |
| Redshift | 0.027339 |
| Heliocentric radial velocity | 8,196 km/s |
| Distance | 415 Mly (127.23 Mpc) |
| Apparent magnitude (V) | 0.067 |
| Apparent magnitude (B) | 0.089 |
| Characteristics | |
| Type | PECULR |
| Size | 170,000 ly (estimated) |
| Apparent size (V) | 1.4' x 0.4' |
| Other designations | |
| UGC 5831, PGC 31915, MCG +01-27-031, CGCG 037-124 | |
Characteristics
editNGC 3341 is classified as a giant disk galaxy located at redshift 0.027. It has a magnitude of MB = -20.3 with a mass of ≈ 1 x 1011 MΘ.[3] The galaxy has two smaller companions of low mass located north from the galaxy with an estimated distance of 5.1 and 8.4 kiloparsecs respectively.[3]
Further observations by astronomers, classified the two offset nuclei of NGC 3341 as dwarf ellipticals or budge remnants of spiral galaxies, whose disk structures were tidal stripped as they coalesced into the larger primary galaxy.[4] According to observations made by Foord and his colleagues, they found the primary nucleus of NGC 3341 has a 0.5-8 keV flux with luminosity of 3.63+0.07-0.05 in harmony with a rest-frame luminosity of 8.54+0.41-0.33 x 1041 erg s-1. The secondary nucleus on the other hand, has an observed 0.5-8 keV flux of 2.7+0.6-0.8 x 10-15 erg s-1 cm-2 s-1. Despite the primary nucleus having an X-ray luminosity of LX > 1 x 1041 erg s-1, the second doesn't.[5]
What is more stranger about the nuclei of NGC 3341, is both of them have different classifications. One is classified a Seyfert type II while the other is a LINER containing weak emission lines. However, the primary nucleus in NGC 3341 contains an emission-line spectrum. Based on the optical spectra of the two nuclei, it is suggested NGC 3341 might well be a dual AGN or a triple AGN system.[4] But because the secondary nucleus never met the X-ray luminosity standards, the merger system of NGC 3341 actually contains a sole AGN.[6]
References
edit- ^ "Your NED Search Results". ned.ipac.caltech.edu. Retrieved 2024-09-22.
- ^ "New General Catalog Objects: NGC 3300 - 3349". cseligman.com. Retrieved 2024-09-22.
- ^ a b Bianchi, Stefano; Piconcelli, Enrico; Pérez-Torres, Miguel Ángel; Fiore, Fabrizio; La Franca, Fabio; Mathur, Smita; Matt, Giorgio (2013-09-05). "The NGC3341 minor merger: a panchromatic view of the active galactic nucleus in a dwarf companion". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 435 (3): 2335–2344. doi:10.1093/mnras/stt1459. ISSN 1365-2966.
- ^ a b Barth, Aaron J.; Bentz, Misty C.; Greene, Jenny E.; Ho, Luis C. (2008-07-28). "An Offset Seyfert 2 Nucleus in the Minor Merger System NGC 3341". The Astrophysical Journal. 683 (2): L119–L122. doi:10.1086/591905. ISSN 0004-637X.
- ^ Foord, Adi; Gültekin, Kayhan; Runnoe, Jessie C.; Koss, Michael J. (2021-02-01). "AGN Triality of Triple Mergers: Detection of Faint X-Ray Point Sources". The Astrophysical Journal. 907 (2): 71. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/abce5d. ISSN 0004-637X.
- ^ Foord, Adi; Gültekin, Kayhan; Runnoe, Jessie C.; Koss, Michael J. (2021-02-01). "AGN Triality of Triple Mergers: Multiwavelength Classifications". The Astrophysical Journal. 907 (2): 72. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/abce5e. ISSN 0004-637X.