Posted on 03/06/2025 11:37:24 AM PST by MtnClimber
Explanation: Beautiful island universe Messier 94 lies a mere 15 million light-years distant in the northern constellation of the hunting dogs, Canes Venatici. A popular target for earth-based astronomers, the face-on spiral galaxy is about 30,000 light-years across, with spiral arms sweeping through the outskirts of its broad disk. But this Hubble Space Telescope field of view spans about 7,000 light-years or so across M94's central region. The sharp close-up examines the galaxy's compact, bright nucleus and prominent inner dust lanes, surrounded by a remarkable bluish ring of young, massive stars. The massive stars in the ring appear to be less than about 10 million years old, indicating the galaxy experienced a corresponding well-defined era of rapid star formation. As a result, while the small, bright nucleus is typical of the Seyfert class of active galaxies, M94 is also known as a starburst galaxy. Because M94 is relatively nearby, astronomers can explore in detail reasons for the galaxy's burst of star formation.
For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.
🪐 🌟 🌌 🍔
“Starburst” Galaxy is great, but if galaxy M51 wasn’t already called the “Whirlpool” Galaxy, I could certainly see M94 getting it.
The name could have been stolen long before recorded history on Earth.
OK, wow, it’s been a lot of years since I’ve seen it. I wouldn’t be able to see it like THAT, obviously. Thanks.
Well you don’t have a space telescope :)
How many stars in that galaxy? Bet it’s nowhere close to 35 trillion..
Ya, lol.🙂
That’s GORGEOUS!
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