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Rare galaxy 40 EP

NGC 3368

RA 161.6906° · Dec 11.8199° · openngc

Real photograph of NGC 3368 📷 Real photo
DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys/LBNL/DOE & KPNO/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA Image
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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
40 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Galaxy +14
  • Messier object +12
  • Outside our galaxy entirely +6
  • Spiral galaxy +5
  • On the zodiac +3
Total score 40

10 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Galaxy · +14
  • Outside our galaxy entirely · +6
  • Messier object · +12
  • Spiral galaxy · +5
  • On the zodiac · +3

Trivia

Hard to believe

  • Messier object. One of the 110 showpieces of the Messier list — catalogued as M96.

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

  • In perspective. Further than Andromeda, the most distant thing the unaided human eye can see.
  • 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

  • How to spot it. At magnitude 9.2 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Leo.
  • Northern sky. It rides the northern half of the sky — an easier target the further north you are.
  • Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around March — that's when to go looking.

Properties

constellation
Leo
dist ly
42072953.7288
dso type
G
hubble
Sab
mag
9.21
messier
yes
messier number
096
name
NGC 3368
radial velocity kms
902
redshift
0.003
size arcmin
8.26
surface brightness
23.14

About NGC 3368

NGC 3368 is a rare galaxy. It lies about 42,072,953.7 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Leo and shines at apparent magnitude 9.21.

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.

How to see it

Look for NGC 3368 in the constellation Leo. At apparent magnitude 9.21, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, NGC 3368 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 NGC 3368 is a rare galaxy

NGC 3368 scores 40 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 10 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Galaxy, Outside our galaxy entirely, Messier object, 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.