NGC 3957 — S0-a in Crater
S0-a in Crater, 3.2 arcminutes across, its light 78 million years old. Measured by HyperLEDA, photographed by Pan-STARRS1. Recorded once.
About NGC 3957
What you are looking at
NGC 3957 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. 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 74,000 light-years, about 75% of the Milky Way’s width.
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 100 scientific papers indexed by SIMBAD, and recorded there under 16 different catalogue designations.
When this light set out
The light that reaches us from NGC 3957 today set out about 78 million years ago, when dinosaurs were at their peak. The galaxy is moving away from us at about 1,634 km/s (3.7 million mph), carried by the expansion of the universe.
Finding it in the sky
NGC 3957 lies in Crater. It is best placed on spring evenings: around 9:30 pm in April it stands about 30° 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 3981 (0.6° away on the sky, at least 810,000 light-years from it); NGC 3956 (1.0° away on the sky, at least 1,360,000 light-years from it); NGC 4027A (1.3° away on the sky, at least 1,790,000 light-years from it); NGC 4027 (1.3° away on the sky, at least 1,810,000 light-years from it), and 2 more.
By apparent size it is number 432 of the 12,657 galaxies on the Galaxy Origins register.
Measurements
| Catalogue | PGC 37326 |
|---|---|
| Morphological type | S0-a |
| Angular diameter | 3.24′ |
| Right ascension | 11h54m01.5s |
| Declination | -19°34′07.5″ |
| Constellation | Crater |
| Inclination | 90.0° |
| Light travel time | 78 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 3.2 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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