Pan over Luminous in Lepus: Spiral Galaxy IC 438 | Hubble Space Telescope
This image shows the spiral galaxy IC 438, which lies about 130 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Lepus (the Hare). Lepus lies just south of the celestial equator (the ring around the middle of Earth that falls at right angles to its rotation axis). Appropriately, Lepus is flanked by the constellations Canis Major (the Greater Dog) and Orion (the Hunter), whilst Canis Minor (the Lesser Dog) lies very nearby, meaning that in artistic representations of the constellations, Lepus is often shown as being pursued by Orion and his two hunting dogs.
Lepus is one of the 88 constellations that are officially recognized by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). It is worth clarifying that, whilst the actual constellations themselves only comprise a handful of stars, the area of sky covered by those stars is often referred to using the name of the constellation. For example, when we say that IC 438 is in Lepus, we do not mean that the galaxy is part of the constellation—perhaps obviously, as it is not a single star, but an entire galaxy! Rather, we mean that it falls in the region of sky covered by the Lepus constellation stars.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. J. Foley (UC Santa Cruz), N. Bartmann
Duration: 30 seconds
Release Date: Jan. 29, 2024
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