IC 871
IC 871
Illustration from its catalogued shape, not a photograph
Barred spiral
type · Sb
290 million ly
from Earth · from redshift
132k ly
across
14.5
apparent magnitude
Because its light is 290 million ly from home, you are seeing IC 871 as it looked roughly 290 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 873Lenticular640,000 ly
apartIC 876Spiral4.3 million ly
apartNGC 5060Barred spiral8.5 million ly
apartNGC 5019Spiral12 million ly
apartNGC 5159Spiral16 million ly
apartNGC 5050Lenticular17 million ly
apart
Worlds in the same direction on the sky→apartIC 876Spiral4.3 million ly
apartNGC 5060Barred spiral8.5 million ly
apartNGC 5019Spiral12 million ly
apartNGC 5159Spiral16 million ly
apartNGC 5050Lenticular17 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).