The sky around Polarissima Borealis at true scale, north up and east left, with stars to magnitude 8. The circles show the field of a low-power eyepiece and of 10×50 binoculars.
NGC 3172 · PGC 36847
Polarissima Borealis
Lenticular galaxy (S0) in
The NGC object closest to the north celestial pole. A tiny smudge in a large telescope.
The box shows where Polarissima Borealis sits in .
Polarissima Borealis is a lenticular galaxy (S0) in , 281 million light-years away
Polarissima Borealis (NGC 3172, PGC 36847) is a lenticular galaxy (S0) in the constellation , 281 million light-years away. It shines at magnitude 11.4 and spans 1.1′ × 1′ of sky, about 89,900 light-years across. It is a telescope object, 6 inches or larger, and it is highest in the evening sky in May.
Galaxy: a system of billions of stars, gas and dust held together by gravity, far outside the Milky Way. Spiral galaxies have a disk with arms; elliptical galaxies are smooth, round or oval swarms of older stars.
Finding Polarissima Borealis from Polaris
Polarissima Borealis lies 1.5° northeast of Polaris, the magnitude 2.0 star. That is within one binocular field.
Polarissima Borealis is highest in the evening in May
The chart gives its height above the horizon at 9 pm through the year, from 60°N to 40°S. It can be seen from the whole northern hemisphere and south to about 1°S, and never sets north of 1°N.
Polarissima Borealis is 281 million light-years away
The light seen from Polarissima Borealis tonight left it about 281 million years ago, long before modern humans existed. It ranks 342 of 422 by distance among the galaxies on Go Astronomy. Distance source: Hubble flow, v=6034 km/s, H0=70.
