NGC 3938 — Sc in Ursa Major
Sc in Ursa Major, 5.4 arcminutes across, its light 39 million years old. Measured by HyperLEDA, photographed by Pan-STARRS1. Recorded once.
About NGC 3938
What you are looking at
NGC 3938 is a late-type spiral: a small central bulge and open, loosely wound arms full of young stars and star-forming gas. It faces us almost squarely, which shows its full structure at once. 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. Five supernovae have been recorded in it, the first in 1961; the most recent include SN 2005ay, SN 2017ein, SN 2022xlp. It is cited in 576 scientific papers indexed by SIMBAD, and recorded there under 22 different catalogue designations.
When this light set out
What a telescope records of NGC 3938 is light that left it about 39 million years ago; on Earth, the planet had come through its hottest interval since the dinosaurs. The galaxy is moving away from us at about 808 km/s (1.8 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
In the sky, NGC 3938 sits within the constellation Ursa Major. It is best placed on spring evenings: around 9:30 pm in April it stands about 86° high in the north, close to overhead, 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 4013 (1.0° away on the sky, at least 700,000 light-years from it); UGC 6818 (1.7° away on the sky, at least 1,170,000 light-years from it); IC 749 (1.7° away on the sky, at least 1,180,000 light-years from it); IC 750 (1.8° away on the sky, at least 1,200,000 light-years from it), and 6 more.
By apparent size it is number 102 of the 12,657 galaxies on the Galaxy Origins register.
Measurements
| Catalogue | PGC 37229 |
|---|---|
| Morphological type | Sc |
| Angular diameter | 5.39′ |
| Right ascension | 11h52m49.4s |
| Declination | +44°07′14.8″ |
| Constellation | Ursa Major |
| Inclination | 17.6° |
| Light travel time | 39 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 5.4 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.
Take this galaxy — $1,290 Browse the Collection