NGC 3256
NGC 3256 is a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Vela about 131 million ly from Earth. It spans roughly 130,000 ly, about the width of our Milky Way. It is receding from us at about 2,781 km/s.
Illustration from its catalogued shape, not a photograph
Because its light is 131 million ly from home, you are seeing NGC 3256 as it looked roughly 131 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.
apartNGC 3262Lenticular3.4 million ly
apartNGC 3256BBarred spiral4.1 million ly
apartNGC 3283Lenticular5.7 million ly
apartNGC 3366Barred spiral6.1 million ly
apartNGC 3318Barred spiral6.5 million ly
apart
Source: structural data (position, morphology, brightness, redshift) from OpenNGC (CC BY-SA). Recession velocity from RC3 (de Vaucouleurs et al. 1991, via NASA/HEASARC, public domain). Distance computed by gravityfinder from redshift via Hubble's law (H0 = 70 km/s/Mpc).