NGC 6384 is an intermediate barred spiral galaxy located about 77 million light-years away in the northern part of the constellation Ophiuchus. It was discovered by German-British astronomer Albert Marth on 10 June 1863.
NGC 6384 has a morphological classification of SAB(r)bc, indicating that it is a weakly barred galaxy (SAB) with an inner ring structure (r) orbiting the bar, and moderate to loosely wound spiral arms (bc). The galaxy is inclined by an angle of 47° to the line of sight, along a position angle of 40°. The estimated mass of the stars in this galaxy is 105 billion times the mass of the Sun.
At one time NGC 6384 was considered a normal galaxy with no activity in the nucleus. However, it is now classified as a transition object (T2), which is thought to be a LINER-type galaxy whose emission-line spectra is contaminated by H II regions in the nucleus.
Supernovae
Three supernovae have been observed in NGC 6384:
- SN 1971L (Type Ia, mag. 13) was discovered by W. Logan on 24 June 1971, located 27″ east and 20″ north of the nucleus. It reached a peak visual magnitude of 12.85 around the end of June. It was situated along a spiral arm, suggesting that the progenitor was not a member of the older, more evolved stellar population of the galaxy.
- SN 2017drh (Type Ia, mag. 17.9356) was discovered by the Distance Less Than 40 Mpc Survey (DLT40) on 3 May 2017.
- SN 2024pxl (Type Iax[02cx-like], mag. 17.668) was discovered by the Zwicky Transient Facility on 23 July 2024.
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