M64: The Black Eye Galaxy, picture of April of the Observatori Astronòmic del Montsec
2017-05-04 00:00:00
Each month the Observatori Astronòmic del Montsec (OAdM) of IEEC publishes an outstanding image from the observations made there. In April, the protagonist is the Black Eye Galaxy.
abril 2017
The galaxy M64, located about 17 million light years away toward the constellation Coma Berenices, often called “black eye” for his appearance through a telescope. The huge dust clouds are responsible for obscuring part of his ring, having taken this issue probably due to a recent collision with another galaxy. Another peculiarity of M64 that confirm this fact is that the gas in the outer area of the galaxy appears to be rotating in the opposite direction to the movement that follow its stars.
The image was captured by the Hubble Joan Oró of the Observatori Astronòmic del Montsec, using various filters broadband and a total of 1,5 hours of exposure.