NGC 3109 — SBm in Hydra
SBm in Hydra, 16.0 arcminutes across, its light 19 million years old. Measured by HyperLEDA, photographed by Pan-STARRS1. Recorded once.
About NGC 3109
NGC 3109 is a small, irregular galaxy on the outskirts of our cosmic neighbourhood, so close that it sits just beyond the edge of the Local Group, the family of galaxies that includes the Milky Way and Andromeda. It is classed as Magellanic: a loose, lopsided disc much like the Large Magellanic Cloud. Because it is near and seen almost edge-on, it is one of the few galaxies outside the Local Group in which individual stars can be studied.
What you are looking at
NGC 3109 is a Magellanic spiral, a small, lopsided disc much like the Large Magellanic Cloud, with almost no central bulge. A bar of stars runs straight across its centre, as one does across the centre of the Milky Way. We see it almost exactly edge-on, so its whole disc appears as one thin band of light, with dust showing as a dark line along its length. From edge to edge its visible disc spans about 90,000 light-years (taking its redshift distance, which for a galaxy this near is approximate), close to the width of the Milky Way.
What astronomers have recorded
It is cited in 837 scientific papers indexed by SIMBAD, and recorded there under 15 different catalogue designations.
When this light set out
Its light has been travelling for about 19 million years. When it left, grasslands were spreading across the continents. The galaxy is moving away from us at about 403 km/s (0.9 million mph), carried by the expansion of the universe. For a galaxy this close, its own motion through space is a large share of that speed, so the distance worked out from it is approximate; distances measured from individual stars in it can differ.
Finding it in the sky
NGC 3109 lies in Hydra. It is best placed on spring evenings: around 9:30 pm in March it stands about 24° high in the south, seen from the middle of the United States.
By apparent size it is number 3 of the 12,657 galaxies on the Galaxy Origins register.
Measurements
| Catalogue | PGC 29128 |
|---|---|
| Morphological type | SBm |
| Angular diameter | 16.00′ |
| Right ascension | 10h03m06.9s |
| Declination | -26°09′34.1″ |
| Constellation | Hydra |
| Inclination | 90.0° |
| Light travel time | 19 million years |
| Bar | yes, from the catalogue |
Check every figure above in the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database
What is sold
A print of this galaxy and the record of the calculation, once. When it sells it leaves the register and is not offered again. We assign no names and no ownership — nobody can sell you those.
At 16.0 arcminutes this is a Exceptional galaxy, which is the tier where a real photograph shows clear structure and dust lanes. The tier comes from the measured diameter, not from a price list.
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