NGC 3239
Irregular galaxy the constellation Leo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
NGC 3239 is an irregular galaxy in the constellation of Leo.[2] The galaxy was discovered in 1784 by William Herschel[3] and is part of the New General Catalogue. It harbors a large and relatively bright H II region in its southeastern section that was first cataloged by Russian astronomer Boris Vorontsov-Velyaminov as VV95b.[4] It's believed that NGC 3239 is the result of a galactic merger with a low-mass galaxy.[5]
| NGC 3239 | |
|---|---|
Image of NGC 3239 (top center) as taken by the Mount Lemmon Sky Center, the bright spot inside the irregular galaxy is SN 2012A | |
| Observation data (J2000 epoch) | |
| Constellation | Leo |
| Right ascension | 10h 25m 06.24s[1] |
| Declination | +17° 09′ 37.8″[1] |
| Distance | 86 Mly (26.4 Mpc)h−1 0.73 |
| Apparent magnitude (B) | 13.5[1] |
| Characteristics | |
| Type | IB(s)mpec[1] |
| Other designations | |
| Arp 263, UGC 5637, MCG +03-27-025, PGC 30560[1] | |
Supernova
One supernova has been observed in NGC 3239. SN 2012A (Type II-P, mag. 14.6) was discovered by Bob Moore, Jack Newton, and Tim Puckett on 7 January 2012.[6][7] It reached a peak visual magnitude of +13.6.[8][9] Later analysis concluded that the progenitor was a red supergiant with 10 to 15 times the mass of the sun.[10]
