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                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    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

                     M64: The Black Eye Galaxy Close Up
      Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble, HLA; Processing: Jonathan Lodge

   Explanation: This magnificent spiral galaxy is Messier 64, often called
   the Black Eye Galaxy or the Sleeping Beauty Galaxy for its 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 Coma
   Berenices. The enormous dust clouds partially obscuring 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. 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
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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