RA 187.4448° · Dec 8.0005° · openngc
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6 more points to reach Epic.
NGC 4472 is a rare galaxy. It lies about 44,279,967.9 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Vir and shines at apparent magnitude 8.28.
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.
Look for NGC 4472 in the constellation Vir. At apparent magnitude 8.28, it is an easy target for binoculars.
Like any astronomical target, NGC 4472 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 4472 scores 44 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 6 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 6 science badges — Galaxy, Outside our galaxy entirely, Messier object, Elliptical galaxy, On the zodiac and Big on the sky — 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.