NGC 4458


NGC 4458 is an elliptical galaxy located about 54 million light-years away in the constellation of Virgo. It was discovered by astronomer William Herschel on April 12, 1784. NGC 4458 is a member of Markarian's Chain which is part of the Virgo Cluster. It is in a pair with the galaxy NGC 4461. NGC 4458 and NGC 4461 are interacting with each other.
NGC 4458 may have a supermassive [black hole] with an estimated mass of 200 million Suns.

Nuclear disk

NGC 4458 has an edge-on nuclear disk which is estimated to be about 6 billion years old. The disk likely formed from the merger of a gas-rich galaxy and has been found to have "similar properties to the decoupled cores of bright ellipticals".

Counter-rotating core

Using Hubble images, it has been determined that NGC 4458 has a counter-rotating core.

Metallicity

NGC 4458 has a low metal content but has an overabundance of the element iron.