NGC 3628

NGC 3628, also known as the Hamburger Galaxy[3] or Sarah's Galaxy,[4][5][6][7][8] is an unbarred spiral galaxy about 35 million light-years away in the constellation Leo. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1784. It has an approximately 300,000 light-years long tidal tail. Along with M65 and M66, NGC 3628 forms the Leo Triplet, a small group of galaxies. Its most conspicuous feature is the broad and obscuring band of dust located along the outer edge of its spiral arms, effectively transecting the galaxy to the view from Earth.

NGC 3628.

Due to the presence of an x-shaped bulge[9], visible in multiple wavelengths, it has been argued that NGC 3628 is instead a barred spiral galaxy with the bar seen end-on.[10] Simulations have shown that bars often form in disk galaxies during interactions and mergers, and NGC 3628 is known to be interacting with its two large neighbors.

NGC 3628
NGC 3628 The Oddest Member of the Leo Triplet
close up of NGC 3628; Credit:ESO
Observation data (J2000 epoch)
Right ascension11h 20m 17.0s[1]
Declination+13° 35′ 23″[1]
Redshift843 ± 1 km/s[1]
Distance35 Mly[2]
Apparent magnitude (B)10.2[1]
TypeSAb pec[1]
Apparent size (V)15′ × 3′.6
Notable featuresGalaxy in the Leo Triplet
Other designations
UGC 6350, PGC 34697, VV 308b[1]


  1. ^ a b c d e f "NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database". Results for NGC 3628. Retrieved 2006-10-24.
  2. ^ Messier Catalogue Description, NGC 3628 page at SEDS.
  3. ^ Sen, Nina (2013-07-28). "Chomp! Hamburger Galaxy Feeds Stargazer's Cosmic Appetite (Photo)". Retrieved 2015-06-14.
  4. ^ "Inside the March 2015 Issue - Sky & Telescope". Retrieved 2015-10-13.
  5. ^ "NGC 3628 (Sarah’s Galaxy)". Retrieved 2015-10-13.
  6. ^ "Astronomers Do It In The Dark - NGC 3628 - the 3rd Galaxy in the Leo Triplet (reprocessed) - Spiral Galaxies - Typically younger galaxies with Spiral Arms of star formation". Retrieved 2015-10-13.
  7. ^ "The Delight of Sarah’s Galaxy | Parables of the Sky Blog". Retrieved 2015-10-13.
  8. ^ "Astronomy Picture of the Month | 2011 | The Sarah's Galaxy". Retrieved 2015-10-13.
  9. ^ Bogdan C. Ciambur; Alister W. Graham (2016), Quantifying the (X/peanut)-shaped structure in edge-on disc galaxies: length, strength, and nested peanuts
  10. ^

External links

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