NGC 5806

NGC 5806 is an intermediate spiral galaxy in the constellation Virgo. It was discovered on February 24, 1786, by the astronomer John Herschel. It is located about 70 million light-years (or about 21 Megaparsecs) away from the Milky Way. It is a member of the NGC 5846 Group.

NGC 5806 contains a star that was catalogued as a supernova (SN Hunt 248), but turned out to be a supernova imposter. The progenitor was detected as a cool hypergiant with an absolute visual magnitude of &minus;9 and 400,000 times more luminous than the sun. The eruption saw it increase in luminosity to around.

NGC 5806 has also hosted several true supernova. SN 2004dg, around 100 times brighter than SN Hunt 248 was a typical type II supernova. The progenitor has not been detected and is expected to have been a relatively low mass, low luminosity, red supergiant. PTF12os in 2012 was a type IIb supernova that occurred in 2012, and iPTF13bvn was a type Ib supernova that exploded in 2013.