astronomy

NGC 6109

NGC 6109 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 6109 rather than just read about it. In short: NGC 6109 is a lenticular galaxy and a LINER galaxy located in the constellation of Corona Borealis. It is located 487 million light-years from Earth with redshift of (z) 0.029.

Key takeaways

NGC 6109 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 6109 to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of NGC 6109 from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

NGC 6109 is a lenticular galaxy and a LINER galaxy located in the constellation of Corona Borealis. It is located 487 million light-years from Earth with redshift of (z) 0.029. It was discovered by French astronomer Édouard Stephan on July 7, 1880, who depicted the galaxy as a small round faint object.

Description NGC 6109 is classified as a Fanaroff-Riley Class Type I radio galaxy with an active galactic nucleus. A member of a poor galaxy cluster ZW 1615.8+3505, it contains a strong head-tail radio source. When observed with the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), the galaxy is mainly dominated by radio emission,with a tail-like structure that is extending towards the northwest direction by about 250 kiloparsecs in extent. Two other background sources are present; one being superimposed on the tail and the other located at the end of the tail. Studies have also indicated the presence of X-ray emission, depicted as point-like and originating from its main nucleus. There is a jet present in NGC 6109. When observed, the jet is noted to display a collimated appearance on the northwest side of the core region and also shown to be bright for 5 arcseconds before dimming away. Within the fainter region the jet's opening angle increases and radio emission that is bending towards the direction of north then subsequently towards west. At the southeast of its radio core, a counter-jet is present with the emission evidently shown as fainter at a center of a component thus giving it the appearance of a doughnut. The spectral index of the core is estimated to be 0.05 ± 0.01. NGC 6109 is a low-luminosity radio galaxy. It has a south-eastern component in which a steep spectrum is noted mainly in linear polarization that is located at the leading edge of the source. Polarization is also varying between 10-30% in both the source's head and the low-brightness part at the end of the tail structure. A central supermassive black hole mass was calculated to be 8.56 M☉.

Supernovae Two supernovae have been discovered in NGC 6109.

SN 2003ia (Type Ia, mag. 17.2) was discovered by Kōichi Itagaki via unfiltered CCD imaging on 15 September 2003. SN 2010an (Type Ia, mag. 17.0) was discovered by the Lick Observatory Supernova Search (LOSS) on 11 March 2010.

References

External links NGC 6109 on WikiSky: DSS2, SDSS, GALEX, IRAS, Hydrogen α, X-Ray, Astrophoto, Sky Map, Articles and images

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with NGC 6109

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what NGC 6109 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 6109 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 6109 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 6109

In research: NGC 6109 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 6109 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 6109 is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 4C objects, Active galaxies, Astronomical objects discovered in 1880, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for NGC 6109 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 6109 in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what NGC 6109 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 6109 out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is NGC 6109 in simple terms?

NGC 6109 is a lenticular galaxy and a LINER galaxy located in the constellation of Corona Borealis. It is located 487 million light-years from Earth with redshift of (z) 0.029.

Why does NGC 6109 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 6109?

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 6109.