NGC 3544 — Sa in Crater
Sa in Crater, 3.1 arcminutes across, its light 177 million years old. Measured by HyperLEDA, photographed by Pan-STARRS1. Recorded once.
About NGC 3544
What you are looking at
NGC 3544 is an early-type spiral: a large, bright central bulge wrapped in smooth, tightly wound arms. 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 157,000 light-years, about 1.6 times the width of the Milky Way.
What astronomers have recorded
SIMBAD, the reference database astronomers use, classes it as a Seyfert galaxy: its nucleus is lit by gas falling into its central black hole, though dust hides part of that glow from us. It is cited in 51 scientific papers indexed by SIMBAD, and recorded there under 12 different catalogue designations.
When this light set out
What a telescope records of NGC 3544 is light that left it about 177 million years ago; on Earth, Pangaea had begun to break apart. The galaxy is moving away from us at about 3,715 km/s (8.3 million mph), carried by the expansion of the universe.
Finding it in the sky
NGC 3544 lies in Crater. It is best placed on spring evenings: around 9:30 pm in April it stands about 32° 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 3497 (1.5° away on the sky, at least 4,760,000 light-years from it); NGC 3529 (1.6° away on the sky, at least 4,950,000 light-years from it); NGC 3514 (1.8° away on the sky, at least 5,680,000 light-years from it).
By apparent size it is number 495 of the 12,657 galaxies on the Galaxy Origins register.
Measurements
| Catalogue | PGC 34028 |
|---|---|
| Morphological type | Sa |
| Angular diameter | 3.06′ |
| Right ascension | 11h11m30.5s |
| Declination | -18°17′22.2″ |
| Constellation | Crater |
| Inclination | 90.0° |
| Light travel time | 177 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 3.1 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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