astronomy

NGC 3660

NGC 3660 is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand NGC 3660 rather than just read about it. In short: NGC 3660 is a barred spiral galaxy located in the constellation of Crater. The redshift of the galaxy is (z) 0.012 (roughly 200 million light-years away) and it was first discovered in February 1787 by the German-British astronomer by the name of William Herschel who described it as a large faint object with an irregular appearance and a bright center.

Key takeaways

NGC 3660 belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect NGC 3660 to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of NGC 3660 from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

NGC 3660 is a barred spiral galaxy located in the constellation of Crater. The redshift of the galaxy is (z) 0.012 (roughly 200 million light-years away) and it was first discovered in February 1787 by the German-British astronomer by the name of William Herschel who described it as a large faint object with an irregular appearance and a bright center. It is also an active Seyfert galaxy, specifically of Type 2.

Description NGC 3660 is described as a barred spiral galaxy of type SBbc with a measured optical magnitude of 11.9 in V-band. The galaxy is also depicted as isolated and it has a strong bar feature with a barely resolved ring based on K-band imaging. The bar feature is shown to be extending outwards until around 16 arcseconds at the position angle of 116°. A smooth structure is seen to be more redder when inching towards the central region with a redder bar region. Color mapping also showed there is a possibility of a small circumnuclear region. The nucleus of the galaxy is active and it has been depicted to have a compact appearance. There are about 59 H II regions that are distributed around the ring feature and also along the direction of its spiral arms. On the outskirt regions, these regions are highly excited when compared to those located in the ring, especially in tow of the regions located in the direction of northeast by 40 and 50 arcseconds from its nucleus. Some faint regions are present to the southeast, forming a shell feature. A weak hydrogen alpha component has been detected with a full width at half maximum (FWHM) of 1,950 kilometers per seconds. A study also found the galaxy is indeed variable when detected in both soft and hard X-rays. There are also molecular gas detections in the galaxy with the total mass estimated to be 0.80 × 109 M☉ based on CO 1-0 observations.

Supernovae Three supernovae have been observed in NGC 3660:

SN 2017byz (Type II, mag. 16.46) was discovered by ATLAS on 4 March 2017. SN 2018jlp (Type II, mag. 18.732) was discovered by ATLAS on 4 December 2018. SN 2026cff (Type II, mag. 17.0032) was discovered by the Automatic Learning for the Rapid Classification of Events (ALeRCE) on 6 February 2026.. This supernova (ZTF26aaffpvx) was part of the Unistellar "cosmic cataclysms" smart telescope tracking project.

References

External links NGC 3660 on WikiSky: DSS2, SDSS, GALEX, IRAS, Hydrogen α, X-Ray, Astrophoto, Sky Map, Articles and images

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with NGC 3660

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what NGC 3660 claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to NGC 3660 before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about NGC 3660 ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of NGC 3660

In research: NGC 3660 appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses NGC 3660 in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: NGC 3660 is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Active galaxies, Astronomical objects discovered in 1787, Barred spiral galaxies, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for NGC 3660 outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study NGC 3660 in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what NGC 3660 means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain NGC 3660 out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is NGC 3660 in simple terms?

Why does NGC 3660 matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study NGC 3660?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on NGC 3660.