Friday, April 5, 2013

APOD 4.2: The Black Eye Galaxy

Messier object 64 is usually known as The Black Eye Galaxy, or, for its appearance in telescopes, the Sleeping Beauty Galaxy. It is found about 17 million light-years away, found in the constellation of Come Berenices. In the center of the galaxy, the reddish color as opposed to black is a result of the huge dust clouds glowing with hydrogen- it is a star forming region. M64 is most likely two rotating star systems rotating oppositely; one is within the inner 3,000 light-years while the other extends to 40,000 light-years, rotating in another direction. These odd rotation patterns could be the result of, throughout a billion years, two different galaxies merging.

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