Key facts
- Constellation
- Hydra
- Right ascension
- 11 18 16.5109
- Declination
- –32 ° 48 ′ 49.732 ″
- Heliocentric radial velocity
- 720 ± 0 km/s
- Distance
- 21.7 million light years (6.64 Mpc )
- Type
- SA(s)d
- Mass
- 2 × 10 M ☉
- Size
- ~216,900 ly (66.49 kpc ) (estimated)
- Apparent size v
- 10.96 ′ × 4.79 ′
via Wikipedia infobox
~2 min read
Encyclopedic overview
NGC 3621 is a disk spiral galaxy about 22 Mly (6.7 Mpc) away in the equatorial constellation of Hydra. It was discovered by German-British astronomer William Herschel on 17 February 1790.
NGC 3621 is comparatively bright and can be well seen in moderate-sized telescopes. The galaxy is around 216,900 ly (66,500 pc) across and is inclined at an angle of 66° from being viewed face on. It shines with a luminosity equal to 13 billion times that of the Sun. The morphological classification is SA(s)d, which indicates this is an ordinary spiral with loosely wound arms. There is no evidence for a bulge. Although it appears to be isolated, NGC 3621 belongs to the Leo spur.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “NGC 3621” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.