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NGC 3184
Sign in to saveAlso known as New General Catalogue 3184
spiral galaxy in the constellation Ursa Major
Key facts
- Constellation
- Ursa Major
- Right ascension
- 10 18 17.0
- Declination
- +41 ° 25 ′ 28 ″
- Heliocentric radial velocity
- 592 ± 1 km/s
- Distance
- 39.8 ± 12 M ly , (12.2 ± 3.7 M pc )
- Type
- SA(s)b: II
- Apparent size v
- 7.4 ′ × 6.9 ′
via Wikipedia infobox
~3 min read
Encyclopedic overview
NGC 3184, also known as The Little Pinwheel Galaxy, is an unbarred spiral galaxy approximately 40 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. Its name comes from its resemblance to the Pinwheel Galaxy. It was discovered by German-British astronomer William Herschel on 18 March 1787. It has two HII regions named NGC 3180 and NGC 3181.
NGC 3184 houses a high abundance of heavy elements. The blue color of its spiral arms comes mostly from relatively few bright young blue stars. The bright stars that highlight the arms were created in huge density waves that circle the center.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “NGC 3184” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.