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