3C 147 (B0538+498) is a compact steep-spectrum (CSS) quasar[3] that was discovered in 1964.

With a redshift of 0.545,[1][2] light from this active galaxy is estimated to have taken around 5.1 billion years to reach Earth.

[2] But as a result of the expansion of the Universe, the present (co-moving) distance to this galaxy is about 6.4 billion light-years (1974 Mpc).

[2] Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) observations have identified a complex central region that is dominated by two bright components, A and B.

[3] The separation between the two central components of the source seems to be increasing with an apparent velocity (superluminal motion) of 1.2 ± 0.4 c.[3] 3C 147 is one of four primary calibrators used by the Very Large Array (along with 3C 48, 3C 138, and 3C 286).