'Hidden' galaxy with billions of stars discovered by Hubble telescope

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The spiral galaxy, IC 4633, is located in the constellation Apus, Nasa said in a statement.

Picture of galaxy IC 4633 captured by Hubble Space Telescope. (Picture: NASA)

New Delhi,UPDATED: Apr 16, 2024 01:36 IST

The Hubble Space Telescope has captured the picture of a galaxy with billions of stars, located 100 million light years away from the earth.

The spiral galaxy, IC 4633, is located in the constellation Apus, Nasa said in a statement.

"IC 4633 is a galaxy rich in star-forming activity and also hosts 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," it said.

However, Nasa said that the galaxy's features are partially obstructed due to a stretch of dark dust which covers the lower right of the picture. The cloud overlapping IC 4633 is a dark nebula, also known as MW9 and the South Celestial Serpent.

"This dark nebula is part of the Chamaeleon star-forming region, itself located only around 500 light-years from us, in a nearby part of our Milky Way galaxy," it said.

The dark clouds in the Chamaeleon region occupy a large area of the southern sky, covering their constellation but also encroaching on nearby constellations, like the Apus.

"Classified as an integrated flux nebula (IFN) — a cloud of gas and dust in the Milky Way galaxy that's not near to any single star and is only faintly lit by the total light of all the galaxy's stars — this vast, narrow trail of faint gas that snakes over the southern celestial pole is much more subdued looking than its neighbors," the space agency said.

The cloud is studied for its large amount of young stars, particularly the cloud Cha I, which has been captured by both the Hubble Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope.

Published By:

Ashutosh Acharya

Published On:

Apr 16, 2024