astronomy

NGC 6051

NGC 6051 is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand NGC 6051 rather than just read about it. In short: NGC 6051 is a giant elliptical galaxy located in the constellation of Serpens. The galaxy lies 453 million light-years from Earth, which means given its apparent dimensions, the galaxy is around 250,000 light-years across.

Key takeaways

NGC 6051 belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect NGC 6051 to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of NGC 6051 from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

NGC 6051 is a giant elliptical galaxy located in the constellation of Serpens. The galaxy lies 453 million light-years from Earth, which means given its apparent dimensions, the galaxy is around 250,000 light-years across. It is the brightest cluster galaxy inside a relaxed poor cluster called AWM 4, a fossil system, making up of at least 30 galaxy members.

Observational history NGC 6051 was discovered by Edouard Stephan on June 20, 1881. According to John Louis Emil Dreyer, he described it as faint small round object with a bright middle nucleus and a 10th magnitude star to southeast. SIMBAD and HyperLEDA databases listed NGC 6051 as IC 4588, but according to Harold Corwin, these galaxies are two separate objects. O'Sullivan and associates (2011) have them as separate entities, with NGC 6051 being the central dominant galaxy of a cluster.

Characteristics NGC 6051 is a Type cD galaxy. It is much more luminous compared to other galaxies in AWM 4, with a low surface brightness profile, but does not have a stellar envelope. The nucleus in NGC 6051 is considered active and it is a radio galaxy. It is classified as a Fanaroff-Riley class hybrid transition of Type I and Type II. Hosting a wide-angle tailed powerful radio source, NGC 6051 contains two reflection-symmetrical wiggled radio jets and large radio lobes emerging from its radio core by ~ 80 kiloparsecs (kpc). The most accepted theory for this active galactic nuclei (AGN) activity, is the presence of a supermassive black hole. The mass of the black hole in NGC 6051 is estimated to be 9.57 ± 0.02 solar masses (M☉; 1.9030×1031 ± 4.0×1028 kg) based on the MBH - MK correlation (a mapping from brightness of the observed black hole to the mass of objects observed by the Two Micron All Sky Survey in the Ks-band). According to the jet to counterjet brightness ratio, the central ~ 10 kpc jet region of NGC 6051 is potentially orientated closer to the plane of the sky. From the analysis of gradually steepening spectral index, the jets and lobes have an estimated lifetime of 160 million years old. This indicates the source of NGC 6051 is old. A study has found traces of iron inside the entrained gas produced from the central region of NGC 6051, with a mass of about 1,400,000 solar masses (M☉; 2.8×1036 kg). With the energy amount of 4.5 × 1057 erg, the gas might been transported out from the galaxy by its jets, to a certain extent of enriching the intracluster medium.

See also List of NGC objects (5001–6000) NGC 6166 NGC 4889

External links NGC 6051 on WikiSky: DSS2, SDSS, GALEX, IRAS, Hydrogen α, X-Ray, Astrophoto, Sky Map, Articles and images

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with NGC 6051

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what NGC 6051 claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to NGC 6051 before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about NGC 6051 ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of NGC 6051

In research: NGC 6051 appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses NGC 6051 in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: NGC 6051 is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 4C objects, Astronomical objects discovered in 1881, Discoveries by Édouard Stephan, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for NGC 6051 outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study NGC 6051 in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what NGC 6051 means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain NGC 6051 out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is NGC 6051 in simple terms?

Why does NGC 6051 matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study NGC 6051?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on NGC 6051.