Centaurus Cluster
| Centaurus Cluster | |
|---|---|
| Observation data (Epoch J2000) | |
| Constellation(s) | Centaurus |
| Right ascension | 12h 48m 51.8s |
| Declination | −41° 18′ 21″ |
| Brightest member | NGC 4696 |
| Number of galaxies | ~100 |
| Richness class | 0 |
| Bautz–Morgan classification | I–II |
| Redshift | 0.01140 (3 418 km/s) |
| Distance | 52.4 Mpc (170.9 Mly) h−1 0.705 |
| X-ray flux | 15.7×10−11 erg s−1 cm−2 (0.5–2 keV) |
| Other designations | |
| Abell 3526 | |
The Centaurus Cluster (A3526) is a cluster of hundreds of galaxies, located approximately 170 million light-years away in the Centaurus constellation. The brightest member galaxy is the elliptical galaxy NGC 4696 (~11m). The Centaurus cluster shares its supercluster, the Hydra–Centaurus Supercluster, with IC4329 Cluster and Hydra Cluster.
The cluster consists of two different sub-groups of galaxies with different velocities. Cen 30 is the main subgroup containing NGC 4696. Cen 45 which is centered on NGC 4709, is moving at 1500 km/s relative to Cen 30, and is believed to be merging with the main cluster.