IC 3863
IC 3863
Illustration from its catalogued shape, not a photograph
Spiral
type · Sab
490 million ly
from Earth · from redshift
101k ly
across
16.0
apparent magnitude
Because its light is 490 million ly from home, you are seeing IC 3863 as it looked roughly 490 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 3879Barred spiral1.7 million ly
apartIC 3919Elliptical5.0 million ly
apartIC 3843Spiral5.9 million ly
apartIC 3828Spiral7.5 million ly
apartIC 3987Elliptical10 million ly
apartIC 3916Spiral11 million ly
apart
Worlds in the same direction on the sky→apartIC 3919Elliptical5.0 million ly
apartIC 3843Spiral5.9 million ly
apartIC 3828Spiral7.5 million ly
apartIC 3987Elliptical10 million ly
apartIC 3916Spiral11 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).