Panning over Spiral Galaxy IC 4633: Hidden in a Dark Cloud | Hubble

Panning over Spiral Galaxy IC 4633: Hidden in a Dark Cloud | Hubble

This is the spiral galaxy IC 4633, located 100 million light-years away from us in the constellation Apus. IC 4633 is a galaxy rich in star-forming activity, as well as hosting an active galactic nucleus at its core. From our point of view, the galaxy is tilted mostly towards us, giving astronomers a fairly good view of its billions of stars. However, we cannot fully appreciate the features of this galaxy—at least in visible light—because it is partially concealed by a stretch of dark dust. A vast, narrow trail of faint gas that snakes over the southern celestial pole, this cloud overlapping IC 4633 has been called the South Celestial Serpent.

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Dalcanton, Dark Energy Survey/DOE/FNAL/DECam/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA, N. Bartmann (ESA/Hubble)  

Acknowledgement: L. Shatz

Duration: 30 seconds

Release Date: April 9, 2024

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