NGC 6384
NGC 6384 is an intermediate barred spiral galaxy located about 77 million light-years away in the northern part of the constellation Ophiuchus. It was discovered on 10 June 1863 by German-British astronomer Albert Marth.
NGC 6384 has a morphological classification of SABbc, indicating that it is a weakly barred galaxy with an inner ring structure orbiting the bar, and moderate to loosely wound spiral arms. The galaxy is inclined by an angle of 47° to the line of sight, along a position angle of 40°. The estimated mass of the stars in this galaxy is 105 billion times the mass of the Sun.
At one time NGC 6384 was considered a normal galaxy with no activity in the nucleus. However, it is now classified as a transition object, which is thought to be a LINER-type galaxy whose emission-line spectra is contaminated by H II regions in the nucleus.
Supernovae
Three supernovae have been observed in NGC 6384:- SN1971L was discovered by W. Logan on 24 June 1971, located 27″ east and 20″ north of the nucleus. It reached a peak visual magnitude of 12.85 around the end of June. It was situated along a spiral arm, suggesting that the progenitor was not a member of the older, more evolved stellar population of the galaxy.
- SN2017drh was discovered by the Distance Less Than 40 Mpc Survey on 3 May 2017.
- SN2024pxl was discovered by the Zwicky Transient Facility on 23 July 2024.