NGC 4068 is an irregular galaxy located 4.36 megaparsecs (14.2 million light-years away in the Ursa Major constellation. It was discovered on 12 April 1789 by William Herschel using a 18.7-inch f/13 speculum reflector telescope.
Characteristics
NGC 4068 is a dwarf irregular galaxy 10,000–12,000 light-years in diameter. As is the case with most observed galaxies of its type, 4068 has low-metallicity. It is currently undergoing a starburst.
Observations
In 2014–2015, researchers using SCORPIO-2 obtained the first two spectroscopic observations of an object later dubbed Object #A. Said object was later observed again twice in 2020 using terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (TDS). Researchers consider the central star in Object #A to be a single star due to TDS observations, excluding the possibility of it being a cluster-ionizing nebula. They hypothesize said star to be 70–80 M☉ and in the late stage of its evolution, with the most likely categorization being a Wolf–Rayet star.
