NGC 4214

NGC 4214 is a dwarf barred irregular galaxy located around 10 million light-years away in the constellation Canes Venatici. NGC 4214 is a member of the M94 Group.

Characteristics


NGC 4214 is both larger and brighter than the Small Magellanic Cloud as well as a starburst galaxy, with the largest star-forming regions (NGC 4214-I and NGC 4214-II) in the galaxy's center. Of the two, NGC 4214-I contains a super star cluster rich in Wolf-Rayet stars and NGC 4214-II is younger (age less than 3 million years), including a number of star clusters and stellar associations.

NGC 4214 also has two older super star clusters, both with an age of 200 million years and respective masses of 2.6*10.5 and 1.5*106 solar masses.

Two satellites are known to exist around the vicinity of NGC 4214. One is DDO 113, which has an absolute V-band magnitude of &minus;12.2. It stopped star formation around 1 billion years ago. Another, more recently discovered object is MADCASH-2, officially named MADCASH J121007+352635-dw. The name refers to the MADCASH (Magellanic Analog Dwarf Companions and Stellar Halos) project. It is similar to typical ultra-faint dwarf galaxies, with an absolute V-band magnitude of &minus;9.15, except in that it shows evidence of multiple episodes of star formation in its recent past: one around 400 million years ago, and another 1.5 billion years ago.

Two supernovae have been observed in NGC 4214: SN 1954A (type Ib, mag. 9.8), and SN 2010U (type LBV, mag. 15.7).