IC 2851
IC 2851
IC 2851 is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Leo about 228 million ly from Earth. It spans roughly 29,000 ly, about 29% of our Milky Way's width. The light reaching us tonight left it about 228 million years ago.
Illustration from its catalogued shape, not a photograph
Spiral
type · Sc
228 million ly
from Earth · from redshift
29k ly
across
17.3
apparent magnitude
Because its light is 228 million ly from home, you are seeing IC 2851 as it looked roughly 228 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 2919Spiral20 million ly
apartNGC 3863Barred spiral27 million ly
apartIC 2762Spiral33 million ly
apartIC 2779Spiral35 million ly
apartNGC 3639Spiral37 million ly
apartNGC 3861Barred spiral39 million ly
apart
Worlds in the same direction on the sky→apartNGC 3863Barred spiral27 million ly
apartIC 2762Spiral33 million ly
apartIC 2779Spiral35 million ly
apartNGC 3639Spiral37 million ly
apartNGC 3861Barred spiral39 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).