Rare galaxy 39 EP

NGC 3379

RA 161.9566° · Dec 12.5816° · openngc

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges

39 pts · Rare

Rare 50 pts → Epic

Galaxy +14
Messier object +12
Outside our galaxy entirely +6
Elliptical galaxy +4
On the zodiac +3

Total score 39

11 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

Galaxy · +14
Outside our galaxy entirely · +6
Messier object · +12
Elliptical galaxy · +4
On the zodiac · +3

Trivia

Hard to believe

Messier object. One of the 110 showpieces of the Messier list — catalogued as M105.

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.
Elliptical. An elliptical galaxy: a smooth swarm of stars on randomly tilted orbits, with almost no cold gas left to build anything new.

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 9.3 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: 40815793.7568
dso type: G
hubble: E
mag: 9.27
messier: yes
messier number: 105
name: NGC 3379
radial velocity kms: 875
redshift: 0.0029
size arcmin: 4.89
surface brightness: 22.54

Nearby objects

About NGC 3379

NGC 3379 is a rare galaxy. It lies about 40,815,793.8 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Leo and shines at apparent magnitude 9.27.

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 3379 in the constellation Leo. At apparent magnitude 9.27, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, NGC 3379 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 3379 is a rare galaxy

NGC 3379 scores 39 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 11 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

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