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Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Starburst Galaxy Messier 94 

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 are all likely less than 10 million years old, indicating the galaxy experienced a 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.




See Explanation.  Clicking on the picture will download
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Image Credit: ESA/Hubble and NASA