IC 502
IC 502
IC 502 is an elliptical galaxy in the constellation Cancer about 193 million ly from Earth. It spans roughly 31,000 ly, about 31% of our Milky Way's width. The light reaching us tonight left it about 193 million years ago.
Illustration from its catalogued shape, not a photograph
Elliptical
type · E
193 million ly
from Earth · from redshift
31k ly
across
15.4
apparent magnitude
Because its light is 193 million ly from home, you are seeing IC 502 as it looked roughly 193 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 2561Barred spiral14 million ly
apartIC 504Lenticular15 million ly
apartNGC 2510Lenticular18 million ly
apartIC 503Spiral18 million ly
apartNGC 2508Elliptical19 million ly
apartNGC 2657Barred spiral20 million ly
apart
Worlds in the same direction on the sky→apartIC 504Lenticular15 million ly
apartNGC 2510Lenticular18 million ly
apartIC 503Spiral18 million ly
apartNGC 2508Elliptical19 million ly
apartNGC 2657Barred spiral20 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).