About IC 4361
IC 4361 is an uncommon galaxy. It sits in the constellation Vir.
A galaxy: a gravitationally bound city of stars, gas and dark matter, turning so slowly that a single rotation takes hundreds of millions of years.
Uncommon galaxy 22 EP
IC 4361
RA 211.0311° · Dec -9.7689° · openngc
Score breakdown
· 3 badgesUncommon 34 pts → Rare
- Galaxy +14
- Spiral galaxy +5
- On the zodiac +3
Total score 22
12 more points to reach Rare.
Badges
- Galaxy · +14
- Spiral galaxy · +5
- On the zodiac · +3
Trivia
What it actually is
- What it actually is. A galaxy: a gravitationally bound city of stars, gas and dark matter, turning so slowly that a single rotation takes hundreds of millions of years.
- Spiral. A spiral galaxy. Those arms are not solid structures but traffic jams — density waves that stars drift into and out of as they orbit.
Sense of scale
- Scale. Home to hundreds of billions of stars — a universe unto itself, and every one of those points of light could have planets.
Find it in the sky
- Where to look. You'll find it in the constellation Virgo.
- Seen from everywhere. It sits almost on the celestial equator, so it can be seen from essentially anywhere on Earth.
- Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around April — that's when to go looking.
Its true colour
- Its true colour. Its colour is a census: blue where gas is still collapsing into hot young stars, yellow-red in the old, settled core.
How we came to know it
- The Index Catalogue. The IC was the 1895 and 1908 supplement to the NGC — the first catalogue in history to be filled largely with objects found on photographic plates rather than by eye.
Properties
- constellation
- Vir
- dso type
- G
- hubble
- Sb
- name
- IC 4361
- size arcmin
- 0.66
How to see it
Look for IC 4361 in the constellation Vir.
Like any astronomical target, IC 4361 is best seen from a dark site away from city lights, and when it is above the horizon depends on your latitude and the time of year. The visibility panel above works out tonight's viewing window for your saved location.
Why IC 4361 is an uncommon galaxy
IC 4361 scores 22 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 12 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 3 science badges — Galaxy, Spiral galaxy and On the zodiac — each earned for a real, measurable property of the object. Rarity on Spacedle is never random: the more remarkable an object's astrophysics, the more badges it collects, the higher it scores, and the rarer it ranks.