NGC 3384 (also known as NGC 3371) is a lenticular galaxy. It is located approximately 35 million light-years away. This galaxy is in the constellation Leo. It is a prominent member of the M 96 Group. This group is also called the Leo I Group. It includes the well-known Messier objects M 95, M 96, and M 105.
NGC 3384 and its neighbor M 105 are surrounded by a massive ring of neutral hydrogen. This ring is 650,000 light-years wide. Sparse star formation still occurs there. In the night sky, NGC 3384 forms a visual trio with the elliptical galaxy M 105. It forms this trio with (NGC 3379) and the spiral galaxy NGC 3389.
While M 105 and NGC 3384 are physical companions, NGC 3389 is a background galaxy located significantly further away. The galaxy hosts a supermassive black hole at its core. It has an estimated mass of 16 million times that of the Sun. This black hole is considered “quiet,” producing very little radio energy.
Image acquisition details in Astrobin. APT used for image acquisition and session automation. PixInsight used for subframe processing.
