NGC 3344

NGC 3344 is a relatively isolated^[7] barred spiral galaxy around half the size of the Milky Way located 22.5^[4] million light years away in the constellation Leo Minor.^[8] It was discovered by German-British astronomer William Herschel on 6 April 1785.^[9]

NGC 3344
NGC 3344 imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope[1]
Observation data (J2000 epoch)
Constellation	Leo Minor
Right ascension	10h 43m 31.150s[2]
Declination	+24° 55′ 19.99″[2]
Redshift	0.001935 ± 0.000003[3]
Heliocentric radial velocity	585[4] km/s
Distance	22.5 Mly (6.90 Mpc)[4]
Apparent magnitude (V)	10.5[5]
Characteristics
Type	(R)SAB(r)bc[6]
Size	~84,800 ly (26.01 kpc) (estimated)[5]
Apparent size (V)	7.1′ × 6.5′[5]
Other designations
IRAS 10407+2511, UGC 5840, MCG +04-25-046, PGC 31968, CGCG 124-060[5]

NGC 3344 belongs to the group known as the Leo spur, which is a branch of the Virgo Supercluster.^[10] NGC 3344 has the morphological classification (R)SAB(r)bc,^[6] which indicates it is a weakly barred spiral galaxy that exhibits rings and moderate to loosely wound spiral arms.^[11] There is both an inner and outer ring, with the prominent arms radiating outward from the inner ring and the slightly elliptical bar being situated inside. At the center of the bar is an HII nucleus with an angular diameter of about 3″.^[7]

Supernova

One supernova has been observed in NGC 3344: SN 2012fh (Type Ib/Ic, mag. 15.1) was discovered by Masaki Tsuboi on 18 October 2012.^[12][13][14]

See also

• List of NGC objects (3001–4000)