NGC 3448

NGC 3448 is an irregular galaxy in the constellation Ursa Major. The galaxy lies about 75 million light years away from Earth, which means, given its apparent dimensions, that NGC 3448 is approximately 125,000 light years across. It was discovered by William Herschel on April 17, 1789.

Characteristics
The galaxy is seen edge-on and is categorised as an amorphous galaxy with material ejected from nucleus in the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies. The galaxy interacts with UGC 6016, a dwarf barred spiral galaxy with low surface brightenss which appears perturbated. UGC 6016 lies 3.9 arcminutes away from NGC 3448. There is material between the two galaxies, probably tidal debris, and a tidal plume emanates from the side of NGC 3448 opposite of UGC 6016. Noreau and Kronberg in 1986 found there is non-continuous hydrogen bridge between the two galaxies though. The bridge is also visible in near ultraviolet.

The galaxy has a central dust lane that lies at an angle of 20° with respect to the rest of the galaxy. A series of radio sources lie along the dust lane that could be supernova remnants, indicating the galaxy is undergoing intense star formation fueled by the tidal interaction. The total star formation rate is estimated to be $1.371$ per year. A spiral arm is visible in radiowaves, with one more possibly present in the other side of the nucleus. The dynamics of NGC 3448 are perturbated due to tidal interaction and material is reintergrating to the galaxy, obscuring parts of the galaxy in visible light. The galaxy has a warped hydrogen disk that extends beyond the visual one, along with the tidal plumes.

Supernova
One supernova has been observed in NGC 3448, SN 2014G. The supernova was discovered on 14 January 2014 by Koichi Itagaki, when it had an apparent magnitude of 15.6. The spectrum of the supernova indicates it was a type II supernova, with initial spectra indicating a type IIn while during its light curve post maximum indicates it was a type II-L.