IC 3956
IC 3956
Illustration from its catalogued shape, not a photograph
Elliptical
type · E
485 million ly
from Earth · from redshift
72k ly
across
15.9
apparent magnitude
Because its light is 485 million ly from home, you are seeing IC 3956 as it looked roughly 485 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 4010Spiral4.3 million ly
apartNGC 4870Barred spiral9.4 million ly
apartIC 4020Spiral11 million ly
apartIC 3987Elliptical11 million ly
apartIC 3919Elliptical12 million ly
apartIC 3916Spiral12 million ly
apart
Worlds in the same direction on the sky→apartNGC 4870Barred spiral9.4 million ly
apartIC 4020Spiral11 million ly
apartIC 3987Elliptical11 million ly
apartIC 3919Elliptical12 million ly
apartIC 3916Spiral12 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).