Surfboard Galaxy (M108 · NGC 3556) — Sc in Ursa Major
The Surfboard Galaxy (M108, NGC 3556) as a framed fine art print. Sc in Ursa Major, 4.0 arcminutes across, its light 34 million years old. Measured by…
About Surfboard Galaxy (M108 · NGC 3556)
Messier 108 is a spiral seen almost edge-on in Ursa Major, close in the sky to the Owl Nebula. With no clear central bulge and a disc full of dust and star clusters, it looks quite different from most of its neighbours in the Messier catalogue.
What you are looking at
The Surfboard Galaxy is a late-type spiral: a small central bulge and open, loosely wound arms full of young stars and star-forming gas. Its disc is steeply tilted, about 68° from face-on, so it appears as a long oval. From edge to edge its visible disc spans about 39,000 light-years (taking its redshift distance, which for a galaxy this near is approximate), about a third the width of the Milky Way.
What astronomers have recorded
SIMBAD, the reference database astronomers use, classes it as a galaxy with an active nucleus, powered by its central black hole. Two supernovae have been recorded in it, the first in 1969; the most recent include SN 1969B, SN 2023dbc. It is cited in 508 scientific papers indexed by SIMBAD, and recorded there under 38 different catalogue designations.
When this light set out
Its light has been travelling for about 34 million years. When it left, Antarctica had begun to freeze. The galaxy is moving away from us at about 698 km/s (1.6 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
The Surfboard Galaxy lies in Ursa Major. From most of the United States it never sets: it circles the north celestial pole all year, and stands highest on spring evenings, around April.
Its neighbours
At almost the same distance from us, and so its neighbours in space as well as on the sky: UGC 6446 (2.9° away on the sky, at least 1,710,000 light-years from it).
By apparent size it is number 242 of the 12,657 galaxies on the Galaxy Origins register.
Measurements
| Catalogue | PGC 34030 |
|---|---|
| Morphological type | Sc |
| Angular diameter | 3.98′ |
| Right ascension | 11h11m30.9s |
| Declination | +55°40′27.4″ |
| Constellation | Ursa Major |
| Inclination | 67.5° |
| Light travel time | 34 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 4.0 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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