NGC 3938 | |
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![]() NGC 3938 imaged by Mount Lemmon SkyCenter of the University of Arizona | |
Observation data (J2000 epoch) | |
Constellation | Ursa Major [1] |
Right ascension | 11h 52m 49.4319s [2] [1] |
Declination | +44° 07′ 14.840″ [2] |
Redshift | 0.002695 [2] |
Heliocentric radial velocity | 808±2 km/s [2] |
Distance | 41.40 ± 9.00 Mly (12.694 ± 2.760 Mpc) [2] |
Apparent magnitude (V) | 10.9 [1] |
Characteristics | |
Type | SA(s)c [2] |
Size | ~76,400 ly (23.42 kpc) (estimated) [2] |
Apparent size (V) | 5.4′ × 4.9′ [1] |
Other designations | |
IRAS 11502+4423, UGC 6856, MCG +07-25-001, PGC 37229, CGCG 214-034 [2] |
NGC 3938 is an unbarred spiral galaxy in the Ursa Major constellation. It was discovered by German-British astronomer William Herschel on 6 February 1788. [3] It is one of the brightest spiral galaxies in the Ursa Major South galaxy group and is roughly 76,000 light years in diameter. [2] [4] It is approximately 41.4 million light years away from Earth. [1] NGC 3938 is classified as type Sc under the Hubble sequence, a loosely wound spiral galaxy with a smaller and dimmer bulge. [5] The spiral arms of the galaxy contain many areas of ionized atomic hydrogen gas, more so towards the center. [6]
NGC 3938 is a member of the NGC 4111 Group, [7] which is part of the Ursa Major Cloud and is the second largest group in the cloud after the NGC 3992 Group. [8] [9] [10]
Five supernovae have been identified within NGC 3938:
One luminous red nova has been observed in NGC 3938: