NGC 3109

NGC 3109 is a small barred Magellanic type spiral galaxy or irregular galaxy around 4.34 million ly away in the direction of the constellation of Hydra. NGC 3109 is believed to be tidally interacting with the dwarf elliptical galaxy Antlia Dwarf.Grebel, Gallagher, Harbeck, p.7 It was discovered by John Herschel on March 24, 1835 while he was in what is now South Africa.


 Size and morphology 
NGC 3109 is classified as a Magellanic type irregular galaxy, but it may in fact be a small spiral galaxy. If it is a spiral galaxy, it would be the smallest in the Local Group. NGC 3109 has a mass of about 2.3×10⁹ times the mass of the Sun, of which 20% of the mass is in the form of neutral hydrogen. It is oriented edge-on from our point of view, and may contain a disk and a halo. The disk appears to be composed of stars of all ages, whereas the halo contains only very old and metal-poor stars. NGC 3109 does not appear to possess a galactic nucleus.

From measurements of the neutral atomic hydrogen in the galaxy, it has been found that the disk of NGC 3109 is twisted. The distortion has the same radial velocity as gas in the Antlia Dwarf galaxy, showing that the two galaxies had a close meeting about 1 billion years ago.

 References 

Category:Galaxies