IC 3078

IC 3078
IC 3078
	IC 3078 captured by Sloan Digital Sky Survey
Observation data (J2000 epoch)
Constellation	Virgo
Right ascension	12h 16m 00.044s
Declination	+12d 41m 14.31s
Redshift	0.066148
Heliocentric radial velocity	19,829 km/s
Distance	905 Mly (277.4 Mpc)
Apparent magnitude (V)	14.5
Apparent magnitude (B)	15.3
Surface brightness	12.8
Characteristics
Type	Sb(r) I, Sy1.9
Apparent size (V)	0.50' x 0.5'
Notable features	Starburst galaxy, seyfert galaxy
Other designations
	IRAS F12134+1257, VCC 0174, KUG 1213+129, CGCG 069-114, MCG +02-31-073, PGC 39263, NVSS J121600+124116, MRK 764

IC 3078 is a spiral galaxy with a ring structure^[1] located in Virgo. Its redshift is 0.066148,^[2] meaning IC 3078 is located 905 million light-years from Earth.^[3] With an apparent dimension of 0.50 x 0.5 arcmin, IC 3038 is about 133,000 light-years across.^[4] It was discovered by Royal Harwood Frost on May 7, 1904^[5]^[6] and is listed in the Virgo Cluster catalogue as VCC 174. However, it is not a member of the Virgo Cluster, but instead a background galaxy.^[7]

Features

The nucleus of IC 3078 is found to be active. It is a Seyfert galaxy of type 1.9^[3] and classified a Markarian galaxy (designated Mrk 764), because compared to other galaxies its nucleus emits excessive amounts of ultraviolet rays.^[8] More IC 3078 is a starburst galaxy since a study published in 1983, mentions it displays a bright star-like nucleus. However, it does not display broad-line emission spectra which is the characteristic of Seyfert galaxies.^[9] Instead its features can be explained through the presence of the population of hot, young stars. IC 3078 is known to be a star-burst nuclei, in which the phenomenon might supply enough material for gravitational accretion, hence the development of active galaxies.^[9]

According to a further study done by Hideaki and Yoshiaki, it is proven IC 3078 is classified an old starburst galaxy, which is deficient in O-type stars and does not exhibit strong line emission. But however, IC 3078 still has many B stars which is expected to heat up dust grains and generate strong continuum emission in far-infrared areas.^[10] Furthermore, IC 3078 lies in the ~9033 square degrees of the sky which is observed by the VLA FIRST survey radio catalogue. From the results, a positive detection of radio emission is found, IC 3078 included, in 775 AGN of which 214 of them show new detections at radio wavelengths.^[11]

Moreover, IC 3078 has been observed by IRAS for its optically selected starburst nuclei to derived its far-infrared luminosity and through tabulating its distance and blue and Hα luminosity, written by Deutsch and Willner.^[12] It was also one of the galaxies to be studied by Kiso Survey for ultraviolet-excess, which was detected on multi-color plates by the Kiso Schmidt telescope for 10 survey fields and catalogued down to a magnitude of 18.^[13]

In a study conducted in 1995, which radio data is presented for IC 3078 and 898 other Markarian galaxies which was observed at v=4.755 GHz through the NRAO-Green Bank 300 foot (91m) telescope, scientists found that detection rates increased to (49%, 33%) amongst seyferts and to (73%, 42%) for those with starburst nuclei.^[14] From the study, it is found that IC 3078 has a radio luminosity of h^2^P_1.415_ < 10^23^ W Hz^-1^, a characteristic of normal galaxies.^[14]