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 is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Triangulum about 2.7 million ly from Earth. It spans roughly 60,000 ly, about 60% of our Milky Way's width. The light reaching us tonight left it about 2.7 million years ago.
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 M33→B324Among the visually brightest stars in the Local Group→
Nearest galaxies
AndromedaSpiral700,000 ly
apartMilky WayBarred spiral2.7 million ly
apartSmall Magellanic CloudIrregular2.8 million ly
apartLarge Magellanic CloudIrregular2.8 million ly
apartSculptorStarburst10 million ly
apartCigarStarburst11 million ly
apart
Worlds in the same direction on the sky→apartMilky WayBarred spiral2.7 million ly
apartSmall Magellanic CloudIrregular2.8 million ly
apartLarge Magellanic CloudIrregular2.8 million ly
apartSculptorStarburst10 million ly
apartCigarStarburst11 million ly
apart
Source: structural data (position, morphology, brightness, redshift) from OpenNGC (CC BY-SA). Distance from published measurements.