NGC 3974

NGC 3974 is a lenticular galaxy in the constellation of Crater. Its velocity with respect to the cosmic microwave background is 6099 ± 41 km/s, which corresponds to a Hubble distance of 89.96 ± 6.34 Mpc. However, one non-redshift measurement gives a much closer distance of. It was discovered by British astronomer John Herschel on 9 March 1828.
NGC 3974 is possibly a LINER galaxy, i.e. it has a type of nucleus that is defined by its spectral line emission which has weakly ionized or neutral atoms, while the spectral line emission from strongly ionized atoms is relatively weak.
One supernova has been observed in NGC 3974: SN 2024gra was discovered by the Automatic Learning for the Rapid Classification of Events on 16 April 2024.