NGC 3718

NGC 3718 is an interesting and unusual galaxy in Ursa Major with an apparent magnitude of 10.5. Note the unusually symmetrical dust lane bisecting the nucleus. Graceful spiral arms extend by almost 9 arc minutes to the north and south, due largely to gravitational interaction with its barred spiral companion, NGC 3729, to the north-east (top left). Also the interesting galaxy quintet designated Arp 322 can be seen to the south of NGC 3718. The individual galaxies were catalogued by Hickson and are designated Hickson 56A on the left through Hickson 56E on the right. Strong gravitational interaction can be seen between the central three galaxies.

The distance to NGC 3718 is roughly 52 Million Light Years.