NGC 3172 (also known as Polarissima Borealis) is a

lenticular galaxy A lenticular galaxy (denoted S0) is a type of galaxy intermediate between an elliptical (denoted E) and a spiral galaxy in galaxy morphological classification schemes. It contains a large-scale disc but does not have large-scale spiral arms. L ...

located in the constellation

Ursa Minor Ursa Minor (Latin: 'Lesser Bear', contrasting with Ursa Major), also known as the Little Bear, is a constellation located in the far northern sky. As with the Great Bear, the tail of the Little Bear may also be seen as the handle of a ladle, h ...

. It is the closest NGC object to the

north celestial pole The north and south celestial poles are the two points in the sky where Earth's axis of rotation, indefinitely extended, intersects the celestial sphere. The north and south celestial poles appear permanently directly overhead to observers at ...

. Discovered by

John Herschel Sir John Frederick William Herschel, 1st Baronet (; 7 March 1792 – 11 May 1871) was an English polymath active as a mathematician, astronomer, chemist, inventor, experimental photographer who invented the blueprint and did botanical wor ...

in 1831, it is about 285 million

light-year A light-year, alternatively spelled light year, is a large unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equivalent to about 9.46 trillion kilometers (), or 5.88 trillion miles ().One trillion here is taken to be 1012 ...

s away and about 85 thousand light-years across. Two

supernova A supernova is a powerful and luminous explosion of a star. It has the plural form supernovae or supernovas, and is abbreviated SN or SNe. This transient astronomical event occurs during the last evolutionary stages of a massive star or when ...

e have been observed in NGC 3172. SN 2010af ( type Ia, mag. 17.2), was discovered on 4 March, 2010. SN 2017gla (type Ia, mag. 16), was discovered on 1 September, 2017.Transient Name Server entry for SN 2017gla.
Retrieved 24 March 2023.

References

External links

SIMBAD: NGC 3054 -- Galaxy
* Lenticular galaxies Ursa Minor 3172 036847 {{lenticular-galaxy-stub

See also

References

External links