IC 557
IC 557
IC 557 is a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Leo about 283 million ly from Earth. It spans roughly 91,000 ly, about the width of our Milky Way. The light reaching us tonight left it about 283 million years ago.
Illustration from its catalogued shape, not a photograph
Barred spiral
type · SBab
283 million ly
from Earth · from redshift
91k ly
across
14.7
apparent magnitude
Because its light is 283 million ly from home, you are seeing IC 557 as it looked roughly 283 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 2984Elliptical4.7 million ly
apartIC 552Lenticular14 million ly
apartIC 548Lenticular24 million ly
apartIC 565 NED01Galaxy25 million ly
apartIC 565 NED02Spiral26 million ly
apartNGC 2958Barred spiral27 million ly
apart
Worlds in the same direction on the sky→apartIC 552Lenticular14 million ly
apartIC 548Lenticular24 million ly
apartIC 565 NED01Galaxy25 million ly
apartIC 565 NED02Spiral26 million ly
apartNGC 2958Barred spiral27 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).