NGC 4527

NGC 4527 is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Virgo. It was discovered by German-British astronomer William Herschel on 23 February 1784.
NGC 4527 is a member of the M61 Group of galaxies, which is a member of the Virgo II Groups, a series of galaxies and galaxy clusters strung out from the southern edge of the Virgo Supercluster.

Characteristics

NGC 4527 is an intermediate spiral galaxy similar to the Andromeda Galaxy and is located at a distance not well determined, but usually is considered to be an outlying member of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies, being placed within the subcluster known as S Cloud.
Unlike the Andromeda Galaxy, NGC 4527 is also a starburst galaxy, with 2.5 billion solar masses of molecular hydrogen concentrated within its innermost regions. However said starburst is still weak and seems to be on its earliest phases.

Three supernovae have been observed in NGC 4527:

SN 1915A was discovered by Heber Curtis on 20 March 1915.
SN 1991T was discovered by Stephen Knight on 13 April 1991, and independently reported by Robert Evans, Mirko Villi, Giancarlo Cortini, and Wayne Johnson. This supernova has been studied extensively as a peculiar and overluminous Type Ia, and is now used as a template, with similar events being classified as Type Ia-91T-like.
SN 2004gn was discovered by the Lick Observatory Supernova Search on 1 December 2004.