NGC 3172

NGC 3172
NGC 3172 imaged by Pan-STARRS
Observation data (J2000 epoch)
Constellation	Ursa Minor
Right ascension	11h 47m 11.928s[1]
Declination	+89° 05′ 35.77″[1]
Redshift	0.020334±0.0000970[2]
Heliocentric radial velocity	6,096±29 km/s[2]
Distance	291.4 ± 20.5 Mly (89.33 ± 6.28 Mpc)[2]
Apparent magnitude (V)	14.9[1]
Characteristics
Type	S0[3]
Apparent size (V)	0.92′ × 0.79′[1]
Notable features	Closest NGC object to the north celestial pole
Other designations
MCG +15-01-011, PGC 36847, CGCG 370-002[2]

NGC 3172 (also known as Polarissima Borealis^[1]) is a lenticular galaxy located in the constellation Ursa Minor. It is the closest NGC object to the north celestial pole.^[1] Discovered by John Herschel in 1831, it is about 285 million light-years away and about 85 thousand light-years across.^[4]

Two supernovae have been observed in NGC 3172:

• SN 2010af (Type Ia, mag. 17.2), was discovered by Tom Boles on 4 March 2010.^[5][6]
• SN 2017gla (Type Ia, mag. 16), was discovered on by Giancarlo Cortini on 1 September 2017.^[7]

• NGC 2573 - the closest NGC object to the south celestial pole.
• List of NGC objects (3001–4000)

• SIMBAD: NGC 3054 -- Galaxy
• NGC 3172 on WikiSky: DSS2, SDSS, GALEX, IRAS, Hydrogen α, X-Ray, Astrophoto, Sky Map, Articles and images