NGC 3628 - Hamburger Galaxy

NGC 3628 is an unbarred spiral galaxy located in the constellation of Leo, at a distance of 35 million light-years away. Due to its culinary resemblance, it is called the Hamburger Galaxy, but sometimes it is named Sarah’s Galaxy, after the English poet Sarah Williams (1837-1868), which became famous after writing the poem called “The Old Astronomer”. The galaxy was discovered by William Herschel in 1784.

Together with the brighter galaxies Messier 65 and 66, it forms the Leo Triplet. Due to the gravitational interactions, NGC 3628 has a very long tidal tail, about 300.000 light-years long. Another consequence is the fact that the edges of the galactic disc are highly warped (therefore it is also included in the Arp catalogue as Arp 317). The side-on view is obstructed by a very dark dust lane bisecting the galactic disc. An interesting fact is that the interstellar gas in NGC 3628 spins opposite to the stars, most likely after a big merger happened long time ago.

Not far above the nucleus, a fuzzy blob can be seen, which represents a diffuse satellite on the far side of NGC 3628.

NGC 3628 is larger than our Milky Way, with an estimated diameter of 145.000 light-years.