NGC 3203 — S0-a in Hydra
S0-a in Hydra, 3.2 arcminutes across, its light 115 million years old. Measured by HyperLEDA, photographed by Pan-STARRS1. Recorded once.
About NGC 3203
What you are looking at
NGC 3203 is a lenticular galaxy: a disc galaxy that has largely used up the gas it needs to form new stars, so its disc is smooth and has no spiral arms. Its disc is turned almost exactly side-on to us: the galaxy appears as a narrow blade of light, and its dust as a dark seam running along it. From edge to edge its visible disc spans about 107,000 light-years, close to the width of the Milky Way.
What astronomers have recorded
SIMBAD, the reference database astronomers use, classes it as a member of a group of galaxies. It is cited in 67 scientific papers indexed by SIMBAD, and recorded there under 12 different catalogue designations.
When this light set out
The light that reaches us from NGC 3203 today set out about 115 million years ago, when the first flowering plants had appeared. The galaxy is moving away from us at about 2,398 km/s (5.4 million mph), carried by the expansion of the universe.
Finding it in the sky
In the sky, NGC 3203 sits within the constellation Hydra. It is best placed on spring evenings: around 9:30 pm in April it stands about 23° high in the south, seen from the middle of the United States.
Its neighbours
At almost the same distance from us, and so its neighbours in space as well as on the sky: NGC 3173 (1.5° away on the sky, at least 2,970,000 light-years from it).
By apparent size it is number 444 of the 12,657 galaxies on the Galaxy Origins register.
Measurements
| Catalogue | PGC 30177 |
|---|---|
| Morphological type | S0-a |
| Angular diameter | 3.21′ |
| Right ascension | 10h19m33.9s |
| Declination | -26°41′55.7″ |
| Constellation | Hydra |
| Inclination | 90.0° |
| Light travel time | 115 million years |
| Bar | not recorded |
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 3.2 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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