spiral galaxy
Spiral galaxies form a class of galaxy originally described by Edwin Hubble in his 1936 work ''The Realm of the Nebulae''Ursa Major
Ursa Major (; also known as the Great Bear) is a constellation in the northern sky, whose associated mythology likely dates back into prehistory. Its Latin name means "greater (or larger) bear," referring to and contrasting it with nearby Ursa ...
. It is located at a distance of circa 45 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 from Earth, which, given its apparent dimensions, means that NGC 3726 is about 85,000 light years across. It was discovered by
William Herschel
Frederick William Herschel (; german: Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel; 15 November 1738 – 25 August 1822) was a German-born British astronomer and composer. He frequently collaborated with his younger sister and fellow astronomer Caroline H ...
on February 5, 1788.
Structure
NGC 3726 is a spiral galaxy with a small
bar
Bar or BAR may refer to:
Food and drink
* Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages
* Candy bar
* Chocolate bar
Science and technology
* Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment
* Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud
* Bar (u ...
, seen with medium inclination. The bar is 1.38 arcseconds across and it ends at an inner ring with 1.50 arcseconds diameter. The bluest regions of star formation are located at the ring.
Three arms emanate from the ring. The southern is the brightest and the north is the best defined. The third arm emanates from the east side of the ring, moves towards NNW and then bends sharply to the southwest. The
spiral arm
Spiral galaxies form a class of galaxy originally described by Edwin Hubble in his 1936 work ''The Realm of the Nebulae'' Numerous bright
HII region
An H II region or HII region is a region of interstellar atomic hydrogen that is ionized. It is typically in a molecular cloud of partially ionized gas in which star formation has recently taken place, with a size ranging from one to hundreds ...
s are present in the galaxy. The galaxy has a massive
dark matter
Dark matter is a hypothetical form of matter thought to account for approximately 85% of the matter in the universe. Dark matter is called "dark" because it does not appear to interact with the electromagnetic field, which means it does not ab ...
halo
Halo, halos or haloes usually refer to:
* Halo (optical phenomenon)
* Halo (religious iconography), a ring of light around the image of a head
HALO, halo, halos or haloes may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment Video games
* ''Halo'' (franch ...
.
The nucleus of the galaxy hosts a
supermassive black hole
A supermassive black hole (SMBH or sometimes SBH) is the largest type of black hole, with its mass being on the order of hundreds of thousands, or millions to billions of times the mass of the Sun (). Black holes are a class of astronomical obj ...
with mass 106.5 (3 million) , based on Ks bulge luminosity.
Nearby galaxies
NGC 3726 belongs in the
NGC 3877
NGC 3877 is a type Sc spiral galaxy that was discovered by William Herschel on February 5, 1788. It is located below the magnitude 3.7 star Chi Ursae Majoris in Ursa Major.
Supernova
The Type IIn supernova SN 1998S is the only supernova th ...
Virgo Supercluster
The Virgo Supercluster (Virgo SC) or the Local Supercluster (LSC or LS) is a mass concentration of galaxies containing the Virgo Cluster and Local Group, which itself contains the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies, as well as others. At least ...
. Other galaxies in the same group are
NGC 3893
NGC 3893 is a spiral galaxy located in the constellation Ursa Major. It is located at a distance of circa 50 million light years from Earth, which, given its apparent dimensions, means that NGC 3893 is about 70,000 light years across. It was disco ...
NGC 3928
NGC 3928 is a lenticular galaxy in the constellation Ursa Major. It was discovered by William Herschel
Frederick William Herschel (; german: Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel; 15 November 1738 – 25 August 1822) was a German-born British ast ...
, NGC 3949, NGC 3985, and NGC 4010. It may be also kinematically related with the smaller galaxies
NGC 3769
NGC commonly refers to:
* New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars, a catalogue of deep sky objects in astronomy
NGC may also refer to:
Companies
* NGC Corporation, name of US electric company Dynegy, Inc. from 1995 to 1998
* Nati ...
and
NGC 3782
NGC commonly refers to:
* New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars, a catalogue of deep sky objects in astronomy
NGC may also refer to:
Companies
* NGC Corporation, name of US electric company Dynegy, Inc. from 1995 to 1998
* Nati ...
, located at angular distances 68' and 69' respectively.Sandage, A., Bedke, J. (1994) ''The Carnegie Atlas of Galaxies. Volume I'',
Carnegie Institution of Washington
The Carnegie Institution of Washington (the organization's legal name), known also for public purposes as the Carnegie Institution for Science (CIS), is an organization in the United States established to fund and perform scientific research. Th ...
Gallery
NGC3726 - SDSS DR14 (panorama).jpg, NGC 3726 by the
Sloan Digital Sky Survey
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey or SDSS is a major multi-spectral imaging and spectroscopic redshift survey using a dedicated 2.5-m wide-angle optical telescope at Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico, United States. The project began in 2000 a ...