NGC 5363, NGC 5364, NGC 5356, NGC 5360 and PGC 049602 part of the Virgo III Groups

NGC 5363 is an intriguing galaxy either S0p or E-type showing an inner dust lane along the minor axis and an outer dust lane along the major axis. NGC 5363 is at a distance of 16.6 Mpc (54.1 Mly) from Earth (Karachentsev et al. 2014). NGC 5363 is the foremost galaxy in a galaxy group known as the NGC 5363 group. The members which are presented on the picture are NGC 5363, NGC 5364, NGC 5356, NGC 5360 and PGC049602 (Makarov et al. 2011). The group is part of the Virgo III Groups. Some of the galaxies presented on the B/W annotated picture are not members of that group while other members are outside the FOV.

One of the spectacular members of the NGC 5363 group is NGC 5364. It is SA grand design spiral galaxy with an inclination towards our line of sight of 47.9 degrees (Muraoka et al., 2019). The distance to NGC 5364 is 19.513 MPc (63.6 Mly) and some giant tidal structure exist to the west of the galaxy (Morales et al. 2018). In particular, the appearance of the spiral arms is amorphous and asymmetrical compared to other galaxies with a similar classification. A companion galaxy, NGC 5363, is located to the north of NGC 5364 and their gravitational interaction may be influencing the peculiar morphology of the latter.

Registered members of the Group NGC 5363: NGC 5363, NGC 5300, NGC 5356, NGC5360, NGC5364, PGC 49343, PGC 49602, PGC 1266441, PGC 1277985, PGC 1283560,  PGC 1285591, UGC08857, UGC08986, AGC 232141, AGC 232142, AGC 232142, SDSSJ13562.

Charts and image details obtained from Astrometry.net

Image and FOV details

RC 12" Astrograph (IRIDA South dome)

Imaging details