IC 639
IC 639
IC 639 is a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Leo about 304 million ly from Earth. It spans roughly 120,000 ly, about the width of our Milky Way. The light reaching us tonight left it about 304 million years ago.
Illustration from its catalogued shape, not a photograph
Barred spiral
type · Sbc
304 million ly
from Earth · from redshift
125k ly
across
14.8
apparent magnitude
Because its light is 304 million ly from home, you are seeing IC 639 as it looked roughly 304 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 3405 NED01Elliptical6.1 million ly
apartIC 635Barred spiral9.6 million ly
apartNGC 3399Elliptical15 million ly
apartNGC 3405 NED02Elliptical17 million ly
apartNGC 3303 NED01Barred spiral18 million ly
apartNGC 3303 NED02Spiral19 million ly
apart
Worlds in the same direction on the sky→apartIC 635Barred spiral9.6 million ly
apartNGC 3399Elliptical15 million ly
apartNGC 3405 NED02Elliptical17 million ly
apartNGC 3303 NED01Barred spiral18 million ly
apartNGC 3303 NED02Spiral19 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).