IC 61
IC 61 is a lenticular galaxy in the constellation Pisces about 523 million ly from Earth. It spans roughly 200,000 ly, about 2.0 times 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
Because its light is 523 million ly from home, you are seeing IC 61 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.
apartIC 53Elliptical42 million ly
apartIC 1565Elliptical43 million ly
apartIC 62Barred spiral43 million ly
apartIC 57Lenticular49 million ly
apartNGC 240Lenticular56 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).