IC 3701
IC 3701
IC 3701 is an elliptical galaxy in the constellation Virgo about 66 million ly from Earth. It spans roughly 8,600 ly, about 9% of our Milky Way's width. The light reaching us tonight left it about 66 million years ago.
Illustration from its catalogued shape, not a photograph
Elliptical
type · E-S0
66 million ly
from Earth · from redshift
9k ly
across
16.6
apparent magnitude
Because its light is 66 million ly from home, you are seeing IC 3701 as it looked roughly 66 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
NGC 4647Spiral630,000 ly
apartIC 3510Elliptical3.2 million ly
apartNGC 4528Lenticular3.7 million ly
apartNGC 4478Elliptical4.0 million ly
apartNGC 4519AIrregular4.1 million ly
apartNGC 4503Lenticular4.1 million ly
apart
Worlds in the same direction on the sky→apartIC 3510Elliptical3.2 million ly
apartNGC 4528Lenticular3.7 million ly
apartNGC 4478Elliptical4.0 million ly
apartNGC 4519AIrregular4.1 million ly
apartNGC 4503Lenticular4.1 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).