Messier 98

Messier 98, M98 or NGC 4192, is an intermediate spiral galaxy about 44.4^[3] million light-years away in slightly northerly Coma Berenices, about 6° to the east of the bright star Denebola (Beta Leonis). It was discovered by French astronomer Pierre Méchain on 1781,^[a] along with nearby M99 and M100, and was catalogued by compatriot Charles Messier 29 days later in his Catalogue des Nébuleuses & des amas d'Étoiles.^[5] It has a blueshift, denoting ignoring of its fast other movement (vectors of proper motion), it is approaching at about 140 km/s.^[2]

Messier 98
Galaxy Messier 98 by ESO New Technology Telescope
Observation data (J2000 epoch)
Constellation	Coma Berenices
Right ascension	12h 13m 48.292s[1]
Declination	+14° 54′ 01.69″[1]
Redshift	−0.000474[2]
Heliocentric radial velocity	−142 ± 4 km/s[2]
Distance	44.4 million light years (13.6 Mpc)[3]
Apparent magnitude (V)	10.1[4]
Characteristics
Type	SAB(s)ab[3]
Apparent size (V)	9′.8 × 2′.8[5]
Other designations
NGC 4192, UGC 7231, PGC 39028[2]

The morphological classification of this galaxy is SAB(s)ab,^[3] which indicates it is a spiral galaxy that displays mixed barred and non-barred features with intermediate to tightly wound arms and no ring.^[6] It is highly inclined to the line of sight at an angle of 74°^[7] and has a maximum rotation velocity of 236 km/s.^[8] The combined mass of the stars in this galaxy is an estimated 76 billion (7.6 × 10¹⁰) times the mass of the Sun. It contains about 4.3 billion solar masses of neutral hydrogen and 85 million solar masses in dust.^[9] The nucleus is active, displaying characteristics of a "transition" type object. That is, it shows properties of a LINER-type galaxy intermixed with an H II region around the nucleus.^[10]

Messier 98 is a member of the Virgo Cluster, which is a large cluster of galaxies, part of the local supercluster.^[11]

About 750 million years ago, it may have interacted with the large spiral galaxy Messier 99. These are now separated by 1,300,000 ly (400,000 pc).^[8]