IC 2020
IC 2020
IC 2020 is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Reticulum about 298 million ly from Earth. It spans roughly 58,000 ly, about 58% of our Milky Way's width. The light reaching us tonight left it about 298 million years ago.
Illustration from its catalogued shape, not a photograph
Spiral
type · Sc
298 million ly
from Earth · from redshift
58k ly
across
15.6
apparent magnitude
Because its light is 298 million ly from home, you are seeing IC 2020 as it looked roughly 298 million years ago. The photons left before that much of history had passed, and are only now reaching us. This distance is estimated from the galaxy's redshift, so the lookback time is approximate.
Nearest galaxies
IC 2060Elliptical24 million ly
apartNGC 1578Spiral25 million ly
apartNGC 1463Spiral31 million ly
apartIC 2022Spiral32 million ly
apartIC 2070Spiral41 million ly
apartIC 2014Barred spiral44 million ly
apart
Worlds in the same direction on the sky→apartNGC 1578Spiral25 million ly
apartNGC 1463Spiral31 million ly
apartIC 2022Spiral32 million ly
apartIC 2070Spiral41 million ly
apartIC 2014Barred spiral44 million ly
apart
Source: structural data (position, morphology, brightness, redshift) from OpenNGC (CC BY-SA). Distance computed by gravityfinder from redshift via Hubble's law (H0 = 70 km/s/Mpc).