The spiral galaxy IC 4633 which lies 100 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Apus. From our perspective, the galaxy is tilted mostly towards us, showing off its billions of stars.
However, we can’t admire all of IC 4633’s features – at least in visible light – because it’s partially concealed by dark dust.
This dark nebula is part of the Chamaeleon star-forming region. Its clouds occupy much of the southern sky, covering its namesake constellation and even encroaching on nearby constellations like Apus.
The cloud overlapping IC 4633 is known as the South Celestial Serpent. A narrow trail of gas that snakes over the southern celestial pole, it’s much more subdued-looking than its neighbouring clouds. For a showy astronomical object like IC 4633, the South Celestial Serpent’s coils aren’t a bad place to hide!
A spiral galaxy seen nearly face-on. The disc is made up of many tightly wound spiral arms. They contain small strands of reddish dust, near the centre. On the left side, the disc features glowing patches of star formation. The whole right side, and part of the centre, is obscured by a large cloud of dark grey gas which crosses the image.
📷 @europeanspaceagency / @hubbleesa , @NASA , J. Dalcanton, Dark Energy Survey/DOE/FNAL/DECam/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA
Acknowledgement: L. Shatz
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