IC 438 is a spiral galaxy in the constellation of Lepus. Its velocity with respect to the cosmic microwave background is , which corresponds to a Hubble distance of . However, 17 non-redshift measurements give a much closer distance of . It was discovered by American astronomer Lewis Swift on 7 January 1891.
IC438 is a Seyfert I Galaxy, i.e. it has a quasar-like nucleus with very high surface brightnesses whose spectra reveal strong, high-ionisation emission lines, but unlike quasars, the host galaxy is clearly detectable.
IC 438 Group According to A.M. Garcia, IC 438 is one of five members of the IC 438 galaxy group (also known as LGG 134), which includes , , , and .
Supernovae Three supernovae have been observed in IC 438: SN 1997B (TypeIc, mag. 16.5) was discovered by Alessandro Gabrijelcic on 13 January 1997. SN 2016blx (TypeII, mag. 16.5) was discovered by the Backyard Observatory Supernova Search (BOSS) on 9 April 2016. SN 2017gbb (TypeIax[02cx-like], mag. 16.39) was discovered by the Gaia Photometric Science Alerts programme on 9 August 2017.
Image gallery
See also List of IC objects
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