IC 4344
IC 4344
IC 4344 is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Boötes about 433 million ly from Earth. It spans roughly 140,000 ly, about the width of our Milky Way. The light reaching us tonight left it about 433 million years ago.
Illustration from its catalogued shape, not a photograph
Spiral
type · Sab
433 million ly
from Earth · from redshift
139k ly
across
15.0
apparent magnitude
Because its light is 433 million ly from home, you are seeing IC 4344 as it looked roughly 433 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 4345Elliptical1.3 million ly
apartIC 4349Spiral1.7 million ly
apartIC 4346Lenticular16 million ly
apartIC 933Lenticular23 million ly
apartIC 4373Elliptical25 million ly
apartIC 4343Elliptical26 million ly
apart
Worlds in the same direction on the sky→apartIC 4349Spiral1.7 million ly
apartIC 4346Lenticular16 million ly
apartIC 933Lenticular23 million ly
apartIC 4373Elliptical25 million ly
apartIC 4343Elliptical26 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).