NGC 5668
NGC 5668 is a nearly face-on spiral galaxy, visual magnitude about 11.5, located about 81 million light years away in the constellation Virgo. It was discovered on 29 April 1786 by William Herschel.
NGC 5668 is a member of the NGC 5638 Group of galaxies, itself one of the Virgo III Groups strung out to the east of the Virgo Supercluster of galaxies. In addition, A.M. Garcia listed NGC 5668 in the 31 member NGC 5746 galaxy group.
As seen from the Earth, it is inclined by an angle of 18° to the line of sight along a position angle of 145°. The morphological classification in the De Vaucouleurs system is SAd, indicating a pure spiral structure with loosely wound arms. However, optical images of the galaxy indicate the presence of a weak bar structure spanning an angle of 12″ across the nucleus. There is a dwarf galaxy located around to the southeast of NGC 5668, and the two may be gravitationally interacting.
Supernovae
Three supernovae have been observed in this galaxy:- SN1952G was discovered by Fritz Zwicky on 18 April 1952.
- SN1954B was discovered by Paul Wild on 4 May 1954.
- SN2004G was discovered by Reiki Kushida on 19 January 2004. It was initially imaged at 43" to the west and 12".5 south of the galaxy core.