NGC 5803
NGC 5803 is an elliptical galaxy in the constellation Libra about 359 million ly from Earth. It spans roughly 70,000 ly, about 70% of our Milky Way's width. The light reaching us tonight left it about 359 million years ago.
Illustration from its catalogued shape, not a photograph
Because its light is 359 million ly from home, you are seeing NGC 5803 as it looked roughly 359 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 5801Barred spiral22 million ly
apartNGC 5880Elliptical23 million ly
apartNGC 5883Lenticular24 million ly
apartNGC 5872Lenticular24 million ly
apartNGC 5817Lenticular26 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).