NGC 480
NGC 480
NGC 480 is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Cetus about 600 million ly from Earth. It spans roughly 100,000 ly, about the width of our Milky Way. The light reaching us tonight left it about 600 million years ago.
Illustration from its catalogued shape, not a photograph
Spiral
type · Sa
600 million ly
from Earth · from redshift
101k ly
across
16.1
apparent magnitude
Because its light is 600 million ly from home, you are seeing NGC 480 as it looked roughly 600 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 95Galaxy35 million ly
apartNGC 617Spiral45 million ly
apartNGC 647Lenticular51 million ly
apartIC 144Elliptical64 million ly
apartIC 79Elliptical70 million ly
apartIC 130Lenticular74 million ly
apart
Worlds in the same direction on the sky→apartNGC 617Spiral45 million ly
apartNGC 647Lenticular51 million ly
apartIC 144Elliptical64 million ly
apartIC 79Elliptical70 million ly
apartIC 130Lenticular74 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).