IC 478
IC 478
IC 478 is a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Gemini about 523 million ly from Earth. It spans roughly 100,000 ly, about the width of our Milky Way. The light reaching us tonight left it about 523 million years ago.
Illustration from its catalogued shape, not a photograph
Barred spiral
type · Sb
523 million ly
from Earth · from redshift
100k ly
across
15.3
apparent magnitude
Because its light is 523 million ly from home, you are seeing IC 478 as it looked roughly 523 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 2218Elliptical84 million ly
apartIC 2309Spiral95 million ly
apartIC 2337Lenticular97 million ly
apartIC 2191Elliptical98 million ly
apartIC 2225Barred spiral100 million ly
apartIC 2223Lenticular110 million ly
apart
Worlds in the same direction on the sky→apartIC 2309Spiral95 million ly
apartIC 2337Lenticular97 million ly
apartIC 2191Elliptical98 million ly
apartIC 2225Barred spiral100 million ly
apartIC 2223Lenticular110 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).