NGC 3893 is a

spiral galaxy Spiral galaxies form a galaxy morphological classification, 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 M ...

. It is located at a distance of circa 50 million

light year A light-year, alternatively spelled light year (ly or lyr), is a unit of length used to express astronomical distance, astronomical distances and is equal to exactly , which is approximately 9.46 trillion km or 5.88 trillion mi. As defined by t ...

s from Earth, which, given its apparent dimensions, means that NGC 3893 is about 70,000 light years across. It was discovered by

William Herschel Frederick William Herschel ( ; ; 15 November 1738 – 25 August 1822) was a German-British astronomer and composer. He frequently collaborated with his younger sister and fellow astronomer Caroline Herschel. Born in the Electorate of Hanover ...

on February 9, 1788. NGC 3893 interacts with its satellite, NGC 3896.

Characteristics

NGC 3893 is a

grand design spiral galaxy A grand design spiral galaxy is a spiral galaxy with prominent and well-defined continuous spiral arms, as opposed to multi-arm, patchy and flocculent spirals which have subtler structural features. The spiral arms of a grand design galaxy exten ...

. It has two main arms, with high surface brightness and numerous

HII region An H II 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 of light year ...

s.Sandage, A., Bedke, J. (1994), ''The Carnegie Atlas of Galaxies. Volume I'', Carnegie Institution of Washington A faint spiral arm extends from the south to the north side making an arc on the east side of NGC 3893. The galaxy is categorised as SAB in NED, but Hernández-Toledo and Puerari did not detect a bar in their observations. The stellar disk of NGC 3893 is estimated to have a mass of 2.3x10¹⁰ and dominates gas dynamics in the optical radius. The

star formation Star formation is the process by which dense regions within molecular clouds in interstellar space—sometimes referred to as "stellar nurseries" or "star-forming regions"—Jeans instability, collapse and form stars. As a branch of astronomy, sta ...

rate in NGC 3893 is about 5.62 /year. Although no

supernova A supernova (: supernovae or supernovas) is a powerful and luminous explosion of a star. A supernova occurs during the last stellar evolution, evolutionary stages of a massive star, or when a white dwarf is triggered into runaway nuclear fusion ...

e have been observed in NGC 3893 yet,

Kōichi Itagaki is an amateur astronomer based in Yamagata, the capital city of Yamagata Prefecture in the Tōhoku region of northern Honshu island, Japan. He is responsible for discovering many comets, and over 170 supernovae.luminous red nova A luminous red nova (abbr. ''LRN'', pl. ''luminous red novae'', pl.abbr. ''LRNe'') is a stellar explosion thought to be caused by the merging of two stars. They are characterised by a distinct red colour, and a light curve that fades slowly with ...

, designated AT 2023uhx, on 7 October 2023 (type LRN, mag. 17.2).

Nearby galaxies

NGC 3893 interacts with NGC 3896, a smaller galaxy lying at an angular distance of 3.9 arcminutes, and this results in a number of

tidal Tidal is the adjectival form of tide. Tidal may also refer to: * ''Tidal'' (album), a 1996 album by Fiona Apple * Tidal (king), a king involved in the Battle of the Vale of Siddim * TidalCycles, a live coding environment for music * Tidal (servic ...

features, like warps and bridges. A bridge of material is observed in HI imaging connecting the two galaxies. A stellar debris bridge is observed at the south side, better seen in

B-band The NATO B band is the obsolete designation given to the radio frequencies from 250 to 500 MHz (equivalent to wavelength In physics and mathematics, wavelength or spatial period of a wave or periodic function is the distance over which the w ...

images, suggesting it is composed of young stars. The mass ratio between the two galaxies is about 0.025 - 0.031. NGC 3893 and its smaller companion NGC 3896 are members of the NGC 3877 group, which belongs to the south Ursa Major groups, part of the

Virgo Supercluster The Local Supercluster (LSC or LS), or Virgo Supercluster is a formerly defined supercluster containing the Virgo Cluster and Local Group, which itself contains the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies, as well as others. At least 100 galaxy group ...

. NGC 3906 lies 20 arcminutes to the southeast of NGC 3893. Other galaxies in the same group are

NGC 3726 NGC 3726 is a barred spiral galaxy located in the constellation Ursa Major. It is located at a distance of circa 45 million light years from Earth, which, given its apparent dimensions, means that NGC 3726 is about 85,000 light years across. It w ...

, NGC 3928,

NGC 3949 NGC 3949 is an unbarred spiral galaxy in the constellation Ursa Major, approximately 50 million light-years away from the Earth. It was discovered by German-British astronomer William Herschel on 5 February 1788. NGC 3949 is a member of the M10 ...

, NGC 3985, and NGC 4010.

References

External links

{{Ngc40 Intermediate spiral galaxies Ursa Major Ursa Major Cluster 3893 06778 036875 Astronomical objects discovered in 1788 Discoveries by William Herschel

Characteristics

Nearby galaxies

See also

References

External links