IC 2856
IC 2856
IC 2856 is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Crater about 305 million ly from Earth. It spans roughly 88,000 ly, about the width of our Milky Way. The light reaching us tonight left it about 305 million years ago.
Illustration from its catalogued shape, not a photograph
Spiral
type · Sab
305 million ly
from Earth · from redshift
88k ly
across
14.6
apparent magnitude
Because its light is 305 million ly from home, you are seeing IC 2856 as it looked roughly 305 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 695Spiral6.3 million ly
apartNGC 3661Lenticular10 million ly
apartIC 2889Spiral15 million ly
apartIC 2910Lenticular18 million ly
apartNGC 3722Elliptical19 million ly
apartNGC 3823Elliptical19 million ly
apart
Worlds in the same direction on the sky→apartNGC 3661Lenticular10 million ly
apartIC 2889Spiral15 million ly
apartIC 2910Lenticular18 million ly
apartNGC 3722Elliptical19 million ly
apartNGC 3823Elliptical19 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).