Triangulum Galaxy

M33 · NGC 598

The third-largest galaxy in our Local Group, a delicate face-on spiral and a likely satellite of Andromeda.

Triangulum Galaxy, a spiral galaxy
PhotographESO · CC BY 4.0
Spiral
type · Sc
2.7 million ly
from Earth · measured
60k ly
across
5.8
apparent magnitude

Because its light is 2.7 million ly from home, you are seeing Triangulum as it looked roughly 2.7 million years ago. The photons left before that much of history had passed, and are only now reaching us.

Notable stars here
Romano's StarOne of the most luminous stars in M33B324Among the visually brightest stars in the Local Group
Nearest galaxies
AndromedaSpiral700,000 ly
apart
Milky WayBarred spiral2.7 million ly
apart
Small Magellanic CloudIrregular2.8 million ly
apart
Large Magellanic CloudIrregular2.8 million ly
apart
SculptorStarburst10 million ly
apart
CigarStarburst11 million ly
apart
Worlds in the same direction on the sky

Source: structural data (position, morphology, brightness, redshift) from OpenNGC (CC BY-SA). Distance from published measurements.

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