Title
Dust Band Around the Nucleus of "Black Eye Galaxy" M64
Caption
Dust Band Around the Nucleus of "Black Eye Galaxy" M64. 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. M64 resides roughly 17 million light-years from Earth. At first glance / M64 appears 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 / detailed studies in the 1990's 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.
Date
20th century
Credit line
Photo12/Ann Ronan Picture Library/NASA/Hubble Heritage Team/(AURA/STScI)
Reference
ARP11A02_371
License type
Rights managed
Available size
51,7Mb (1,4Mb) / 13,0in x 15,4in / 3900 x 4630 (300dpi)