NGC 3621 - a particular little-known galaxy (Patrick Dufour)

Celestial hemisphere: Southern · Constellation: Hydra (Hya) · Contains: NGC 3621

NGC 3621 - a particular little-known galaxy, Patrick Dufour

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NGC 3621 - a particular little-known galaxy

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NGC 3621 - a particular little-known galaxy

I hung on the passage of our visit to the constellation of Hydra, a galaxy that has still respected the rules of distancing until now. NGC3621 would still have had no interaction with other sisters so far.

While most spiral galaxies have a central bulge - a large group of old stars wrapped in a compact spheroidal region - NGC 3621 does not. In this image, it is clear that there is simply a brightening in the center, but no real bulge like many other galaxies.

NGC 3621 is also interesting because it is believed to have an active supermassive black hole in its center which engulfs matter and produces radiation. This is somewhat unusual as most of these so-called active galactic nuclei exist in galaxies with prominent bulges. In this particular case, the supermassive black hole would have a relatively small mass, about 20,000 times that of the Sun.

Another interesting feature is that there would also be two small black holes, with masses a few thousand times those of the Sun, near the core of the galaxy. Therefore, NGC 3621 is an extremely interesting object which, although it does not have a central bulge, has a system of three black holes in its central region.

As for the image as such, it is a combination of LRGB filters totaling 18 hours of exposure. As there seems to have been a bone with the acquisitions of color (the bright stars have a funny look), I did not push any more on this object. We may come back to it eventually.

Astro-Québec

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NGC 3621 - a particular little-known galaxy

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NGC 3621 - a particular little-known galaxy

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