SDSS-J17698-6953

SDSS J17698-6953 is a spiral galaxy located approximately 314.9 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Centaurus. Its coordinates in the sky are right ascension 176.983° and declination -69.535°, and it is catalogued in the SDSS.

The light reaching Earth from SDSS J17698-6953 today left the galaxy roughly 314.9 million years ago. What you see in telescope imagery is a snapshot of the galaxy as it appeared before most of Earth’s mammalian history.

Through the Galactic Registry, you can symbolically dedicate SDSS J17698-6953 in a name, memory, or message of your choosing. Your dedication is filed permanently in our public registry and printed on an archival 12″×18″ cotton-stock certificate, shipped worldwide. This is not an official IAU renaming — only the International Astronomical Union can officially name celestial bodies — but it is a permanent symbolic act tied to a galaxy that demonstrably exists, can be pointed at from any observatory on Earth, and has been imaged by NASA, ESA, or a ground-based telescope.