IC 3687 — IAB in Canes Venatici
IAB in Canes Venatici, 3.3 arcminutes across, its light 17 million years old. Measured by HyperLEDA, photographed by Pan-STARRS1. Recorded once.
About IC 3687
What you are looking at
IC 3687 is an irregular galaxy, with no ordered shape, rich in gas and in young stars. We look down on it almost face-on, so its structure is laid out as if on a map. From edge to edge its visible disc spans about 17,000 light-years (taking its redshift distance, which for a galaxy this near is approximate), about 17% of the Milky Way’s width.
What astronomers have recorded
SIMBAD, the reference database astronomers use, classes it as a member of a group of galaxies. It is cited in 158 scientific papers indexed by SIMBAD, and recorded there under 14 different catalogue designations.
When this light set out
What a telescope records of IC 3687 is light that left it about 17 million years ago; on Earth, grasslands were spreading across the continents. The galaxy is moving away from us at about 354 km/s (0.8 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
IC 3687 lies in Canes Venatici. It is best placed on spring evenings: around 9:30 pm in May it stands about 89° 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: UGC 7719 (1.7° away on the sky, at least 500,000 light-years from it); UGC 7774 (1.9° away on the sky, at least 560,000 light-years from it); UGC 7699 (2.1° away on the sky, at least 610,000 light-years from it); UGC 7949 (2.2° away on the sky, at least 660,000 light-years from it), and 2 more.
By apparent size it is number 406 of the 12,657 galaxies on the Galaxy Origins register.
Measurements
| Catalogue | PGC 42656 |
|---|---|
| Morphological type | IAB |
| Angular diameter | 3.34′ |
| Right ascension | 12h42m15.1s |
| Declination | +38°30′09.7″ |
| Constellation | Canes Venatici |
| Inclination | 25.0° |
| Light travel time | 17 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 3.3 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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