Q1119115

NGC 5371 is a face-on spiral galaxy in the northern constellation Canes Venatici. It was discovered on January 14, 1788 by German-British astronomer William Herschel. The nearby NGC 5390 appears to be a duplicate entry for NGC 5371, since there is nothing at the former's position. NGC 5371 has an apparent magnitude of 11.3 and an angular size of 4.4′ × 3.5′. It is located at a distance of 129.5 ± 32.4 million light-years (39.70 ± 9.92 Mpc) from the Milky Way, and is receding with a heliocentric radial velocity of 2,552 km/s. The galaxy appears to be weakly interacting with the nearby, equidistant Hickson 68 group of galaxies, and thus may be a member. Collectively, they are sometimes dubbed the Big Lick galaxy group, after the city of Roanoke, Virginia.

NGC 5371 (left) and Hickson 68 (right) The morphological classification of NGC 5371 in the De Vaucouleurs system is SAB(rs)bc, indicating a weakly barred spiral galaxy (SAB) with a transitional inner ring structure (rs), and moderately wound spiral arms (bc). The galactic plane is inclined at an angle of 45°±5° to the plane of the sky, with the major axis oriented along a position angle of 195°±3°. This is classified as a LINER-type galaxy and may be in a post-starburst phase. There is an extended or double source of X-ray emission.