NGC 3705 — SABa in Leo
SABa in Leo, 4.3 arcminutes across, its light 49 million years old. Measured by HyperLEDA, photographed by Pan-STARRS1. Recorded once.
About NGC 3705
What you are looking at
NGC 3705 is an early-type spiral: a large, bright central bulge wrapped in smooth, tightly wound arms. A weak bar of stars crosses its centre. Its disc is steeply tilted, about 72° from face-on, so it appears as a long oval. From edge to edge its visible disc spans about 61,000 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. One supernova has been recorded in it: SN 2022xxf. It is cited in 186 scientific papers indexed by SIMBAD, and recorded there under 17 different catalogue designations.
When this light set out
Its light has been travelling for about 49 million years. When it left, the planet had come through its hottest interval since the dinosaurs. The galaxy is moving away from us at about 1,018 km/s (2.3 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 3705 lies in Leo. It is best placed on spring evenings: around 9:30 pm in April it stands about 59° 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: IC 2828 (0.9° away on the sky, at least 780,000 light-years from it); NGC 3666 (2.5° away on the sky, at least 2,130,000 light-years from it).
By apparent size it is number 188 of the 12,657 galaxies on the Galaxy Origins register.
Measurements
| Catalogue | PGC 35440 |
|---|---|
| Morphological type | SABa |
| Angular diameter | 4.30′ |
| Right ascension | 11h30m07.5s |
| Declination | +09°16′36.0″ |
| Constellation | Leo |
| Inclination | 72.2° |
| Light travel time | 49 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 4.3 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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