NGC 3311
galaxy
NGC 3311 is a super-giant elliptical galaxy (a type-cD galaxy) located about 190 million light-years away in the constellation Hydra. The galaxy was discovered by astronomer John Herschel on March 30, 1835. NGC 3311 is the brightest member of the Hydra Cluster and forms a pair with NGC 3309 which along with NGC 3311, dominate the central region of the Hydra Cluster.
NGC 3311 is surrounded by a rich and extensive globular cluster system rivaling that of Messier 87 in the Virgo Cluster.
Physical characteristics
The central region of NGC 3311 is obscured by a dust cloud with an estimated diameter of 1,700 ly (0.53 kpc). It has an amorphous and complex structure and its small size and disturbed morphology suggests that the cloud originated from a merger event with another galaxy that occurred within the past 10 million years. Oddly though, there are no shells or isophote distortions in the outer regions of NGC 3311 that would have been the result of such a recent merger. Other scenarios for the origin of the dust cloud are by a cooling flow or by galactic wind failure.
The total estimated mass of the dust cloud is 4,600 solar masses (4.6×104 M☉).
In NGC 3311, it has been detected that there is an excess blue population in the central region of the galaxy.
The public source identifies “NGC 3311” as galaxy. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around galaxy.
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A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “NGC 3311”, the useful work is to connect “galaxy” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1104160. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1835.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “NGC 3311” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.