NGC 3003
Galaxy in the constellation Leo Minor
NGC 3003 is a nearly edge-on barred spiral galaxy in the constellation of Leo Minor, discovered by German-British astronomer William Herschel on December 7, 1785. It has an apparent visual magnitude of 11.78, and spans an angular size of 5.7′ × 1.4′. NGC 3003 is located at a distance of 19.5 Mpc from the Sun, with a recessional velocity of 1,474 km/s.
The morphological classification of NGC 3003 is SBbc, indicating a barred spiral (SB) with moderate to loosely wound spiral arms (bc). The shape of the galaxy suggests it has been disturbed, possibly by NGC 3021. The two have a projected separation of about 200 kpc. NGC 3003 displays high luminosity in the hydrogen-alpha line, showing a bright nucleus and many prominent H II regions. 25 independent star forming regions have been identified, including the nuclear region. There is a bright and compact region to the southwest, which may be the remains of a dwarf galaxy or an intense H II region.
01Supernova and luminous blue variable
One supernova and one luminous blue variable have been observed in NGC 3003:
- SN 1961F (Type II, mag. 13.1) was discovered by Paul Wild on 21 February 1961.
- AT 2020jev (Type LBV, mag. 20.33) was discovered by Pan-STARRS on 4 May 2020.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “NGC 3003”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- NGC3003 - SDSS DR14.jpg by Sloan Digital Sky Survey, CC BY 4.0
- AT 2020jev in NGC 3003 JWST MIRI.jpg by NASA/ESA/CSA JWST MIRI; Ryan Lau et al. & Melina Thévenot, CC BY-SA 4.0
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