Black Eye Galaxy, M64, Ngc 4826
by Science Source
Title
Black Eye Galaxy, M64, Ngc 4826
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Science Source
Medium
Photograph - Photograph
Description
A collision of two galaxies has left a merged star system with an unusual appearance as well as bizarre internal motions. Messier 64 (M64) has a spectacular dark band of absorbing dust in front of the galaxy's bright nucleus, giving rise to its nicknames of the "Black Eye" or "Evil Eye" galaxy. Fine details of the dark band are revealed in this image of the central portion of M64 obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope. M64 is well known among amateur astronomers because of its appearance in small telescopes. Located in the northern constellation Coma Berenices, M64 resides roughly 17 million light-years from Earth. Active formation of new stars is occurring in the shear region where gasses that are rotating oppositely to the gas and stars in the inner regions collide. Particularly noticeable in the image are hot, blue young stars that have just formed, along with pink clouds of glowing hydrogen gas that fluoresce when exposed to ultraviolet light from newly formed stars. Astronomers believe that the oppositely rotating gas arose when M64 absorbed a satellite galaxy that collided with it, perhaps more than one billion years ago, and has by now been almost completely destroyed. This image of M64 was taken with Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2). The color image is a composite prepared by the Hubble Heritage Team from pictures taken through four different color filters. These filters isolate blue and near-infrared light, along with red light emitted by hydrogen atoms and green light from Strömgren y.
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December 2nd, 2015
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