NGC 2336 is a

barred spiral galaxy A barred spiral galaxy is a spiral galaxy with a central bar-shaped structure composed of stars. Bars are found in about two thirds of all spiral galaxies in the local universe, and generally affect both the motions of stars and interstellar gas ...

located in the constellation

Camelopardalis Camelopardalis is a large but faint constellation of the northern sky representing a giraffe. The constellation was introduced in 1612 or 1613 by Petrus Plancius. Some older astronomy books give Camelopardalus or Camelopardus as alternative form ...

. It is located at a distance of circa 100 million

light year A light-year, alternatively spelled light year (ly or lyr), is a unit of length used to express astronomical distance, astronomical distances and is equal to exactly , which is approximately 9.46 trillion km or 5.88 trillion mi. As defined by t ...

s from Earth, which, given its apparent dimensions, means that NGC 2336 is about 200,000 light years across. It was discovered by

Wilhelm Tempel Ernst Wilhelm Leberecht Tempel (4 December 1821 – 16 March 1889), normally known as Wilhelm Tempel, was a German astronomer who worked in Marseille until the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, then later moved to Italy. Tempel was b ...

in 1876.

Characteristics

NGC 2336 is a

, featuring a small optical bar. At least 8 spiral arms, with numerous

HII region An H II region is a region of interstellar atomic hydrogen that is ionized. It is typically in a molecular cloud of partially ionized gas in which star formation has recently taken place, with a size ranging from one to hundreds of light year ...

s,Sandage, A., Bedke, J. (1994), ''The Carnegie Atlas of Galaxies. Volume I'', Carnegie Institution of Washington, p. 15 emanate from the ring-like structure around the bar. This ring has a radius of approximately 34 arcseconds, which corresponds to 5.3 kpc at the distance of NGC 2336. In the large arms of the galaxy have been observed 28 HII regions that may host young massive

star cluster A star cluster is a group of stars held together by self-gravitation. Two main types of star clusters can be distinguished: globular clusters, tight groups of ten thousand to millions of old stars which are gravitationally bound; and open cluster ...

s, and for two of them the nebular emission comprises most of the flux. Three of these HII areas have ages calculated to be 100 to 300 million years and have sizes between 300 and 600 parsecs. It is suggested they are star complexes that may coexist with younger ones. The most massive of the HII regions, number 13, has a mass estimated to be and is across. Observations in the

ultraviolet Ultraviolet radiation, also known as simply UV, is electromagnetic radiation of wavelengths of 10–400 nanometers, shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays. UV radiation is present in sunlight and constitutes about 10% of ...

showed 78 star forming regions, with two of them between the spiral arms and six at the galaxy ring. Their size is comparable to

NGC 604 NGC 604 is an H II region inside the Triangulum Galaxy. It was discovered by William Herschel on September 11, 1784. It is among the largest H II regions in the Local Group of galaxies; at the galaxy's estimated distance of 2.7 million light-ye ...

, one of the largest

nebula A nebula (; or nebulas) is a distinct luminescent part of interstellar medium, which can consist of ionized, neutral, or molecular hydrogen and also cosmic dust. Nebulae are often star-forming regions, such as in the Pillars of Creation in ...

e in the

Local Group The Local Group is the galaxy group that includes the Milky Way, where Earth is located. It has a total diameter of roughly , and a total mass of the order of . It consists of two collections of galaxies in a " dumbbell" shape; the Milky Way ...

Star formation Star formation is the process by which dense regions within molecular clouds in interstellar space—sometimes referred to as "stellar nurseries" or "star-forming regions"—Jeans instability, collapse and form stars. As a branch of astronomy, sta ...

is more intense in the inner parts of the arms and at the ring. Scattered

dust lane A dust lane consists of relatively dense, obscuring clouds of interstellar dust, observed as a dark swath against the background of brighter object(s), especially a galaxy. These dust lanes can usually be seen in spiral galaxies, such as the M ...

s which do not fit into a spiral structure have been observed in the nuclear region of the galaxy. No emission has been detected in the radiowaves and HI and Ha imaging of the nucleus of NGC 2336. The nucleus is small, with an apparent diameter of 5 arcseconds, while the bulge is large, with a radius of 17 arcseconds. In the centre of NGC 2336 lies a

supermassive black hole A supermassive black hole (SMBH or sometimes SBH) is the largest type of black hole, with its mass being on the order of hundreds of thousands, or millions to billions, of times the mass of the Sun (). Black holes are a class of astronomical ...

whose mass is estimated to be 30 million (10^7.5) based on Ks bulge luminosity. NGC 2336 also hosts an active Type II Seyfert galactic nucleus, which was discovered by the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UVIT)

Supernova

One

supernova A supernova (: supernovae or supernovas) is a powerful and luminous explosion of a star. A supernova occurs during the last stellar evolution, evolutionary stages of a massive star, or when a white dwarf is triggered into runaway nuclear fusion ...

has been observed in NGC 2336. SN1987L ( typeIa, mag. 14.2) was discovered by American amateur astronomer James Dana Patchick on 16 August 1987. He used a home built 17.5" Dobsonian reflecting telescope for the visual discovery. The supernova was found as part of a team effort known as 'SUNSEARCH', started by Steve H. Lucas. Spectrography performed by

William Herschel Telescope The William Herschel Telescope (WHT) is a optical and near-infrared reflecting telescope located at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on the island of La Palma in the Canary Islands, Spain. The telescope, which is named after William Hersc ...

on 20–21 October 1987 concluded that it was a type Ia supernova with its maximum approximately 100 days before. ote: some sources incorrectly list this supernova as type II.

Nearby galaxies

NGC 2336 is the foremost galaxy of a small

galaxy group A galaxy group or group of galaxies (GrG) is an aggregation of galaxies comprising about 50 or fewer gravitationally bound members, each at least as luminous as the Milky Way (about 1010 times the luminosity of the Sun); collections of galaxi ...

known as the NGC 2336 group. It forms a non-interacting pair with IC 467, which lies 20 arcminutes away.

Gallery

File:N2336s.jpg, NGC 2336 by the

Mount Lemmon Observatory Mount Lemmon Observatory (MLO), also known as the Mount Lemmon Infrared Observatory, is an astronomy, astronomical observatory located on Mount Lemmon in the Santa Catalina Mountains approximately northeast of Tucson, Arizona, Tucson, Arizona (U ...

File:NGC 2336 GALEX WikiSky.jpg, NGC 2336 by

GALEX Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX or Explorer 83 or SMEX-7) was a NASA orbiting space telescope designed to observe the universe in ultraviolet wavelengths to measure the history of star formation in the universe. In addition to paving the way ...

File:Ngc 2336 hst 08597 20 wfpc2 f606w.png, NGC 2336 by the HST File:NGC 2336 DSS.jpg, DSS File:NGC 2336-Big-Beautiful and Blue.jpg, NGC 2336 is the quintessential galaxy — big, beautiful and blue — and it is captured here by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. File:NGC 2336 Naval Observatory.jpg, NGC 2336 by the Naval Observatory 61" Reflector File:Jack Newton Photograph - SN 1987L.jpg, NGC 2336 and SN 1987L, August 26, 1987 - by Jack Newton File:NGC 2336 PanS.jpg,

Pan-STARRS The Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS1; List of observatory codes, obs. code: IAU code#F51, F51 and Pan-STARRS2 obs. code: IAU code#F52, F52) located at Haleakala Observatory, Hawaii, US, consists of astronomical ...

References

External links