NGC 3908 is one of the furthest NGC objects. It is an elliptical galaxy located 1.2 billion light-years away in the Leo constellation with an estimated 280,000 thousand light-years across in diameter. It was discovered on April 10, 1885, by Lewis Swift, who found the object too faint for the naked eye to see. The identification of the celestial object observed by Swift is uncertain. The coordinates (RA 11 49 40.8, Dec 12 04 19) place it approximately 7.5 arcminutes south-southwest of a galaxy previously listed, potentially identifying it as PGC 36967. However, astronomers Corwin and Gottlieb argue that the object is much fainter than Swift's descriptions suggest, indicating it may have been too faint for him to observe. Although the right ascension aligns with another of Swift's discoveries on the same night (NGC 5304), the discrepancy in declination is notably larger. It remains unclear if PGC 36967 is NGC 3908, and it is equally probable that Swift's observed object is "lost," with any nearby galaxy merely coincidental to Swift's original position. Due to its relatively large size, NGC 3908 is considered a brightest cluster galaxy, a BCG.
See also
- List of the most distant astronomical objects
- NGC 5609
References
