Astronomy Picture of the Day [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2023 July 20 [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available. M64: The Black Eye Galaxy Close Up Image Credit: [3]NASA, [4]ESA, [5]Hubble, [6]HLA; Processing: [7]Jonathan Lodge Explanation: This magnificent spiral galaxy is [8]Messier 64, often called the Black Eye Galaxy or the [9]Sleeping Beauty Galaxy for its [10]dark-lidded appearance in telescopic views. The spiral's central region, about 7,400 light-years across, is pictured in this reprocessed image from the Hubble Space Telescope. M64 lies some 17 million light-years distant in the otherwise well-groomed northern constellation [11]Coma Berenices. The enormous dust clouds partially obscuring [12]M64's central region are laced with young, blue star clusters and the reddish glow of hydrogen associated with star forming regions. But imposing clouds of dust are not this galaxy's only peculiar feature. Observations show that M64 is actually composed of two concentric, counter-rotating systems. While all the stars in M64 rotate in the same direction as the interstellar gas in the galaxy's central region, gas in the outer regions, extending to about 40,000 light-years, rotates in the opposite direction. [13]The dusty eye and bizarre rotation are likely the result of a billion year old merger of two different galaxies. Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space __________________________________________________________________ [14]< | [15]Archive | [16]Submissions | [17]Index | [18]Search | [19]Calendar | [20]RSS | [21]Education | [22]About APOD | [23]Discuss | [24]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [25]Robert Nemiroff ([26]MTU) & [27]Jerry Bonnell ([28]UMCP) NASA Official: Phillip Newman [29]Specific rights apply. [30]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: [31]ASD at [32]NASA / [33]GSFC [34]NASA Science Activation & [35]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2307/M64Hubble.jpg 3. https://www.nasa.gov/ 4. http://www.esa.int/ 5. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/story/index.html 6. https://hla.stsci.edu/ 7. https://www.instagram.com/jjlodge 8. http://messier.seds.org/m/m064.html 9. http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/bib_query?1994AJ....107..173R 10. https://www.instagram.com/p/CuoQujIPmiq/ 11. http://hawastsoc.org/deepsky/com/index.html 12. https://hubblesite.org/contents/media/images/2004/04/1447-Image.html 13. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/messier-64-the-black-eye-galaxy 14. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230719.html 15. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 16. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 17. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 18. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 19. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss 21. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 22. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 23. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=230720 24. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230721.html 25. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 26. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 27. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 28. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 29. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 30. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 31. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 32. https://www.nasa.gov/ 33. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 34. https://science.nasa.gov/learners 35. http://www.mtu.edu/