Messier 64 or NGC 4826 (The Black Eye Galaxy) by Hubble Space Telescope

Added: 2026-06-03

Messier 64 (NGC 4826), known as the Black Eye Galaxy, is a spiral galaxy located 17 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices, characterized by a distinctive dark dust band that partially obscures its bright core; this galaxy exhibits a unique internal motion where gas in the outer regions rotates in the opposite direction from gas and stars in the inner regions, a phenomenon believed to result from a merger with a satellite galaxy over a billion years ago, and where new stars form in the collision zone where oppositely rotating gases compress and contract, creating hot blue stars and glowing pink hydrogen clouds visible in Hubble's stunning image.