IC 612
IC 612
IC 612 is a lenticular galaxy in the constellation Leo about 451 million ly from Earth. It spans roughly 55,000 ly, about 55% of our Milky Way's width. The light reaching us tonight left it about 451 million years ago.
Illustration from its catalogued shape, not a photograph
Lenticular
type · S0
451 million ly
from Earth · from redshift
55k ly
across
15.4
apparent magnitude
Because its light is 451 million ly from home, you are seeing IC 612 as it looked roughly 451 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 613Elliptical910,000 ly
apartIC 615Barred spiral1,000,000 ly
apartNGC 3217Spiral8.6 million ly
apartNGC 3253Barred spiral13 million ly
apartIC 620Barred spiral29 million ly
apartIC 596Barred spiral34 million ly
apart
Worlds in the same direction on the sky→apartIC 615Barred spiral1,000,000 ly
apartNGC 3217Spiral8.6 million ly
apartNGC 3253Barred spiral13 million ly
apartIC 620Barred spiral29 million ly
apartIC 596Barred spiral34 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).