RA 179.0430° · Dec 60.5225° · openngc
16 more points to reach Epic.
NGC 3978 is a rare galaxy. It lies about 463,472,976.3 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation UMa and shines at apparent magnitude 12.74.
A barred spiral — a straight bar of stars driving right through the nucleus, feeding gas inwards. Our own Milky Way is one of these.
Look for NGC 3978 in the constellation UMa. At apparent magnitude 12.74, it takes a larger telescope or a long-exposure image to capture.
Like any astronomical target, NGC 3978 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.
NGC 3978 scores 34 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 16 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 4 science badges — Galaxy, Outside our galaxy entirely, Barred spiral galaxy and Never sets (northern circumpolar) — 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.