NGC 4236 is a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Draco and an outlying member of the M81 Group of galaxies, located roughly 12-15 million light-years away (estimates in the literature range from about 11.7 to 21 million light-years).
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NGC 4236 is a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Draco and an outlying member of the M81 Group of galaxies, located roughly 12-15 million light-years away (estimates in the literature range from about 11.7 to 21 million light-years). Despite spanning nearly 100,000 light-years, a size comparable to the Milky Way, it is classified as a low surface brightness galaxy, with its stars and star-forming regions spread thinly across an elongated disk rather than concentrated in a bright nucleus. This gives it a large apparent size on the sky (over 20 arcminutes) but a deceptively faint, diffuse look visually. It is a challenging target for astrophotographers, requiring long integration to reveal the mottled star-forming clumps along its bar and the faint traces of its spiral disk.
