NGC 4526


NGC 4526 is a lenticular galaxy with an embedded dusty disc, located approximately 55 million light-years from the Solar System in the Virgo constellation and discovered on 13 April 1784 by William Herschel. Herschel observed it again on 28 December 1785, resulting in the galaxy being entered twice into the New General Catalogue.
The galaxy is seen nearly edge-on. The morphological classification is SAB0°, which indicates a lenticular structure with a weak bar across the center and pure spiral arms without a ring. It belongs to the Virgo Cluster and is one of the brightest known lenticular galaxies.
In the galaxy's outer halo, globular cluster orbital velocities indicate abnormal poverty of dark matter: only 43±18% of the mass within 5 effective radii.
The inner nucleus of this galaxy displays a rise in stellar orbital motion that indicates the presence of a central dark mass. The best fit model for the motion of molecular gas in the core region suggests there is a supermassive black hole with about times the mass of the Sun. This is the first object to have its black-hole mass estimated by measuring the rotation of gas molecules around its centre with an astronomical interferometer.

Supernovae

Two supernovae have been observed in NGC 4526:SN 1969E was discovered by Enrique Chavira on 23 March 1969.