NGC 3686 Galaxy Group (Gary Imm)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Leo (Leo) · Contains: NGC 3681 · NGC 3684 · NGC 3686 · NGC 3691

NGC 3686 Galaxy Group

This group of 4 lovely spiral galaxies is located in the constellation of Leo at a declination of +17 degrees.

NGC 3686, at upper left, is a barred grand design spiral 55 million light years away. It is a magnitude 11.3 galaxy which spans 3.8 arc-minutes in our apparent view. This corresponds to a diameter of 60,000 light years. From our view perspective, the disk is inclined about halfway between face-on and edge-on. The arms of this galaxy are unusual, looking flocculated and somewhat disturbed instead of smooth.

NGC 3684, at center, looks similar to NGC 3686 in structure and size, and has a similar slightly disturbed look. NGC 3681, at bottom right, is also similar in size and disturbance, but has an interesting central bar lens.

NGC 3691, at lower left, is classified as a low brightness galaxy, although it looks no difference in surface brightness to me than the other 3. Its structure, though, is odd, with a central bright "line" (not really a bar) cutting across the disk.

The distances of these galaxies relative to each other is uncertain. Some estimates say that all 4 are at the same distance, while others say that they are far enough apart from each other to be not interacting. Each of the disks is disturbed, but I don't see any extended star streams. My guess is that they are a similar distance away and are interacting slightly.

The background of this image shows more distant galaxies than stars.

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	9638987
PixInsight job	JYF6SNN5DOR9AOMRX4CC2BNSM8GMU1DP
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	11h27m18s.658
RA (top/left)	11h28m50s.849
RA (top/right)	11h25m48s.185
RA (bottom/right)	11h25m46s.720
RA (bottom/left)	11h28m48s.881

Dec (center)	+17°03′29″.30
Dec (top/left)	+17°17′34″.21
Dec (top/right)	+17°18′11″.93
Dec (bottom/right)	+16°49′21″.58
Dec (bottom/left)	+16°48′43″.90

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