NGC 3217
NGC 3217
NGC 3217 is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Leo about 446 million ly from Earth. It spans roughly 69,000 ly, about 69% of our Milky Way's width. The light reaching us tonight left it about 446 million years ago.
Illustration from its catalogued shape, not a photograph
Spiral
type · Sc
446 million ly
from Earth · from redshift
69k ly
across
15.2
apparent magnitude
Because its light is 446 million ly from home, you are seeing NGC 3217 as it looked roughly 446 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 612Lenticular8.6 million ly
apartIC 613Elliptical9.2 million ly
apartIC 615Barred spiral9.5 million ly
apartNGC 3253Barred spiral18 million ly
apartIC 596Barred spiral26 million ly
apartIC 620Barred spiral37 million ly
apart
Worlds in the same direction on the sky→apartIC 613Elliptical9.2 million ly
apartIC 615Barred spiral9.5 million ly
apartNGC 3253Barred spiral18 million ly
apartIC 596Barred spiral26 million ly
apartIC 620Barred spiral37 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).