NGC 3991 NED02
NGC 3991 NED02 is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Ursa Major about 152 million ly from Earth. It spans roughly 37,000 ly, about 37% of our Milky Way's width. The light reaching us tonight left it about 152 million years ago.
Illustration from its catalogued shape, not a photograph
Because its light is 152 million ly from home, you are seeing NGC 3991 NED02 as it looked roughly 152 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.
apartIC 2978Barred spiral2.1 million ly
apartNGC 3995Spiral2.9 million ly
apartNGC 3991 NED01Irregular3.9 million ly
apartIC 2985Lenticular5.1 million ly
apartIC 2973Barred spiral5.2 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).