Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Leo Minor (LMi)  ·  Contains:  NGC 3486  ·  PGC 1850550
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NGC 3486, Gary Imm
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NGC 3486

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NGC 3486, Gary Imm
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NGC 3486

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Description

This object is a barred spiral galaxy located 40 million light years away in the constellation of Leo Minor at a declination of +29 degrees. This 11.1 magnitude galaxy spans 7 arc-minutes in our apparent view, which corresponds to an actual diameter of 80,000 light years. Its surface brightness is fairly low, at 14.1. The disk looks about 30 degrees from face-on to me but I could not confirm the actual amount.

Like many galaxies this close, the galaxy details in terms of blue star clusters and pink HII regions are fairly easy to see. The weak barred core is surrounded by a bright white wavy star stream ring.

The galaxy disk is primarily flocculent, although in some places arm fragments extend as far as halfway around the disk. The word "flocculent" comes from the Latin word floccus, which means “flock of wool”. I think that is a pretty good description. About 30% of galaxies have flocculent disks. I have a collection of them here.

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