NGC 5509
NGC 5509
Illustration from its catalogued shape, not a photograph
Lenticular
type · S0
400 million ly
from Earth · from redshift
138k ly
across
15.0
apparent magnitude
Because its light is 400 million ly from home, you are seeing NGC 5509 as it looked roughly 400 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 1021Barred spiral30 million ly
apartIC 949Spiral37 million ly
apartIC 4373Elliptical39 million ly
apartIC 4343Elliptical45 million ly
apartIC 4342Spiral45 million ly
apartIC 4346Lenticular47 million ly
apart
Worlds in the same direction on the sky→apartIC 949Spiral37 million ly
apartIC 4373Elliptical39 million ly
apartIC 4343Elliptical45 million ly
apartIC 4342Spiral45 million ly
apartIC 4346Lenticular47 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).