NGC 3976 — Sb in Virgo
Sb in Virgo, 3.1 arcminutes across, its light 120 million years old. Measured by HyperLEDA, photographed by Pan-STARRS1. Recorded once.
About NGC 3976
What you are looking at
NGC 3976 is a spiral with a sizeable central bulge and well-defined arms, close in type to the Milky Way. Its disc is turned almost exactly side-on to us: the galaxy appears as a narrow blade of light, and its dust as a dark seam running along it. From edge to edge its visible disc spans about 109,000 light-years, close to 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 148 scientific papers indexed by SIMBAD, and recorded there under 20 different catalogue designations.
When this light set out
Its light has been travelling for about 120 million years. When it left, the first flowering plants had appeared. The galaxy is moving away from us at about 2,497 km/s (5.6 million mph), carried by the expansion of the universe.
Finding it in the sky
In the sky, NGC 3976 sits within the constellation Virgo. It is best placed on spring evenings: around 9:30 pm in April it stands about 57° high in the south, seen from the middle of the United States.
By apparent size it is number 466 of the 12,657 galaxies on the Galaxy Origins register.
Measurements
| Catalogue | PGC 37483 |
|---|---|
| Morphological type | Sb |
| Angular diameter | 3.13′ |
| Right ascension | 11h55m57.3s |
| Declination | +06°44′58.3″ |
| Constellation | Virgo |
| Inclination | 81.7° |
| Light travel time | 120 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.
Take this galaxy — $1,290 Browse the Collection