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Rare galaxy 40 EP

NGC 4054

RA 180.8046° · Dec 57.8944° · openngc

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Score breakdown

· 3 badges
40 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Galaxy triplet +22
  • Galaxy +14
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) +4
Total score 40

10 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Galaxy · +14
  • Galaxy triplet · +22
  • Never sets (northern circumpolar) · +4

Trivia

What it actually is

  • What it actually is. A triple galaxy system — three island universes tangled together, on a course that ends with them merging into one.

Sense of scale

  • Sense of scale. Galaxies pass through each other almost without collisions — the stars are so far apart that they simply miss.
  • 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 Ursa Major.
  • 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.

How we came to know it

  • The New General Catalogue. Its NGC number comes from J. L. E. Dreyer's 1888 catalogue, itself built on decades of sky sweeps by William Herschel and his sister Caroline.

Properties

constellation
UMa
dso type
GTrpl
name
NGC 4054
size arcmin
1

Nearby objects

About NGC 4054

NGC 4054 is a rare galaxy. It sits in the constellation UMa.

A triple galaxy system — three island universes tangled together, on a course that ends with them merging into one.

How to see it

Look for NGC 4054 in the constellation UMa.

Like any astronomical target, NGC 4054 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 4054 is a rare galaxy

NGC 4054 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 3 science badges — Galaxy, Galaxy triplet 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.