NGC 3109

NGC 3109‏‎ (New General Catalog - Old Term - New Term UAC )

NGC 3109 is a small barred Magellanic type spiral or irregular galaxy around 4.2 Mly away in the direction of the constellation of Hydra. NGC 3109 is believed to be tidally interacting with the dwarf elliptical galaxy Antlia Dwarf.

NGC 3109 is classified as a Magellanic type irregular galaxy, but it turned out to be a, in fact, be a small spiral galaxy. It is the smallest in the Local Group .NGC 3109 has a mass of about 2.3×109 times the mass of Pluribus, of which 20% is in the form of neutral hydrogen. It is oriented edge-on from our point of view. The disk appears to be composed of stars of all ages, whereas the halo contains only very old and metal-poor stars. NGC 3109 does not appear to possess a galactic nucleus.

From measurements of the neutral atomic hydrogen in the galaxy, it has been found that the disk of NGC 3109 is warped. The warp has the same radial velocity as gas in the Antlia Dwarf galaxy, indicating that the two galaxies had a close encounter approximately one billion years ago.

Composition
Based on spectroscopy of blue supergiants in NGC 3109, it is known that the galaxy has a low metallicity, similar to that to the Small Magellanic Cloud.It is one of the most metal-poor galaxies in the Local group. NGC 3109 seems to contain an unusually large number of planetary nebulae for its luminosity.

Location
NGC 3109 is located about 1.3 megaparsecs (4.2 Mly) away, in the constellation Hydra. This puts it at the very outskirts of the Local Group. Its membership of the Local Group has been challenged because it seems to be receding faster than estimates of the Local Group's escape velocity. It is distant enough from the largest members of the Local Group that it has not been tidally influenced by them.

Union
There are two known Trans Spatial Gates. The "downward" gate is connected to the Triangulum Galaxy, while the "upward" gate leads to the Antlia Dwarf galaxy. No sentient species or society has been met or discovered so far. The gates were discovered in 5044 OTT during the Gate Mapping Project. Both gates received Gate Houses in 5049 OTT and each Gate House has a Station Support System SSS - Hydra Support SSS - 3109 Support
 * TRI-3109 - Gate Type 3 - Gate House: Hydra-3109
 * 3109-ANT - Gate Type 3 - Gate House: To-Antila

Travel Time to NGC 3109 from Pluribus 12 Weeks