IC 372
IC 372
IC 372 is a lenticular galaxy in the constellation Eridanus about 197 million ly from Earth. It spans roughly 56,000 ly, about 56% of our Milky Way's width. The light reaching us tonight left it about 197 million years ago.
Illustration from its catalogued shape, not a photograph
Lenticular
type · S0-a
197 million ly
from Earth · from redshift
56k ly
across
15.3
apparent magnitude
Because its light is 197 million ly from home, you are seeing IC 372 as it looked roughly 197 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 1607Lenticular2.5 million ly
apartNGC 1580Barred spiral3.1 million ly
apartNGC 1611Lenticular4.3 million ly
apartNGC 1609Lenticular4.9 million ly
apartIC 2080Spiral5.7 million ly
apartNGC 1594Barred spiral6.5 million ly
apart
Worlds in the same direction on the sky→apartNGC 1580Barred spiral3.1 million ly
apartNGC 1611Lenticular4.3 million ly
apartNGC 1609Lenticular4.9 million ly
apartIC 2080Spiral5.7 million ly
apartNGC 1594Barred spiral6.5 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).