IC 1978
IC 1978
Illustration from its catalogued shape, not a photograph
Spiral
type · Sab
491 million ly
from Earth · from redshift
173k ly
across
15.7
apparent magnitude
Because its light is 491 million ly from home, you are seeing IC 1978 as it looked roughly 491 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 1973Galaxy17 million ly
apartIC 1989Elliptical31 million ly
apartNGC 1500Elliptical36 million ly
apartIC 1968Spiral38 million ly
apartIC 2018Spiral39 million ly
apartIC 1950Spiral42 million ly
apart
Worlds in the same direction on the sky→apartIC 1989Elliptical31 million ly
apartNGC 1500Elliptical36 million ly
apartIC 1968Spiral38 million ly
apartIC 2018Spiral39 million ly
apartIC 1950Spiral42 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).