NGC 3044 in Sextans
March 2025 - Galaxy of the Month
For this month’s GOM I have chosen NGC 3044 in Sextans. NGC 3044 is a nice edge on spiral galaxy, close to the superthin variety. First discovered by William Herschel in December 1784 it lies at an estimated distance of about 67 million light-years from us.
Given that distance to the galaxy this would make NGC 3044 about 91,000 light-years across, slightly smaller than our own Milky Way at 100,000 light-years. It appears relatively isolated in space which is of interest as the lop-sided nature of the galaxy suggests that it may have had a recent interaction with another galaxy. This may also explain the cloud of ionised gas which extends about 1 kpc above the centre. NGC 3044 is classified as an SBc spiral lying at an angle of perhaps 85 degrees from the plane of the sky.
It has been suggested that it is part of the widely spaced Leo Cloud of galaxies. There are also suggestions that it is a part of the extended filaments of galaxies associated with the Virgo cluster.
NGC 3044 has hosted one type II supernova in SN 1983E. Images of the galaxy suggest that its colours are fairly blue suggesting a lot of recent star formation. The disk also shows signs of knots which could represent large star clusters. This activity is backed up by its brightness and structure as seen in UV images from the GALEX satellite which suggests strong star forming activity through the galaxy. Whether this is the result of a merger, perhaps half a billion years or so ago, is not clear but there are no companions close enough to it to have disturbed it. Radio observations also show that the HI cloud surrounding NGC 3044 is lopsided and warped. There are also high latitude HI features, some of which appear to be expanding shells. Interestingly SIMBAD suggests that it is an AGN candidate.
NGC 3044 makes the Herschel 3 list as well as most lists of flat galaxies including that from the Astronomical League. Observations from the The Night Sky Observer's Guide Vol. 2 suggest that telescopes in the 40-45cm class should show structure in the plane of the galaxy in terms of discrete knots. The galaxy should be visible in say 25cm but will not show much detail. Luginbuhl and Skiff (L&S) suggest that it is visible as a faint spindle in 25cm but 30cm shows some structure. Note however these observations were made from altitude in dark skies. It is also in Alvin Huey’s Flat Galaxies guide which can be downloaded for free from his website.
Owen Brazell - Galaxy Section Director
If you'd like to try out the Clear Skies Observing Guides (CSOG), you can download observing guide for the current Galaxy of the Month without the need to register. CSOG are not associated with the Webb Deep-Sky Society but the work of Victor van Wulfen.
