NGC 3384 — E-S0 in Leo
E-S0 in Leo, 5.2 arcminutes across, its light 27 million years old. Measured by HyperLEDA, photographed by Pan-STARRS1. Recorded once.
About NGC 3384
What you are looking at
NGC 3384 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. From edge to edge its visible disc spans about 41,000 light-years (taking its redshift distance, which for a galaxy this near is approximate), about half 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 620 scientific papers indexed by SIMBAD, and recorded there under 17 different catalogue designations.
When this light set out
The light that reaches us from NGC 3384 today set out about 27 million years ago, when Antarctica had begun to freeze. The galaxy is moving away from us at about 563 km/s (1.3 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 3384 lies in Leo. It is best placed on spring evenings: around 9:30 pm in April it stands about 63° 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: M96 (0.9° away on the sky, at least 420,000 light-years from it); NGC 3412 (1.0° away on the sky, at least 480,000 light-years from it); M95 (1.4° away on the sky, at least 660,000 light-years from it); NGC 3377A (1.5° away on the sky, at least 690,000 light-years from it), and 1 more.
By apparent size it is number 115 of the 12,657 galaxies on the Galaxy Origins register.
Measurements
| Catalogue | PGC 32292 |
|---|---|
| Morphological type | E-S0 |
| Angular diameter | 5.24′ |
| Right ascension | 10h48m16.9s |
| Declination | +12°37′45.6″ |
| Constellation | Leo |
| Inclination | 90.0° |
| Light travel time | 27 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 5.2 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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