Black Eye Galaxy
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Blackeyegalaxy.jpg
The Black Eye Galaxy (also known as the Evil Eye Galaxy, the Sleeping Beauty Galaxy, Messier Object 64, M64, or NGC 4826) was discovered by Edward Pigott in March 1779, and independently by Johann Elert Bode in April of the same year, as well as by Charles Messier in 1780.
M64 is well known among amateur astronomers because of its appearance in small telescopes. It is a pinwheel-shaped spiral galaxy in the Coma Berenices constellation (Berenice's Hair).
The Black Eye Galaxy is 17 million light-years (5.2 Megaparsecs) from Earth. It 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.
General information
At first glance, M64 seems to be a fairly normal pinwheel-shaped spiral galaxy. As in the majority of galaxies, all of the stars in M64 are rotating in the same direction, clockwise as seen in the Hubble image.
However, recent detailed studies have led to the remarkable discovery that the interstellar gas in the outer regions of M64 rotates in the opposite direction from the gas and stars in the inner regions.
A collision of two galaxies has left a merged star system with an unusual appearance as well as bizarre internal motions. 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. Active formation of new stars is occurring in the shear region where the oppositely rotating gases collide, are compressed, and contract.
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.
The small galaxy that impinged on its neighbour has now been almost completely destroyed, its stars either merged with the main galaxy or scattered into space, but signs of the collision persist in the backward motion of gas at the outer edge of M64.
Related topics
External links
- Messier 64, SEDS Messier pages (http://www.seds.org/messier/m/m064.html)
- Hubblesite description and high resolution images (http://hubblesite.org/news/2004/04)de:Messier 64