Washington: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) recently released the most recent images of the ‘Evil Eye Galaxy,’ known as M64. It was shared through NASA’s official Instagram account. It is located within the northern constellation, Coma Berenices. M64 resides approximately 17 million light-years away from Earth and was initially discovered by French astronomer Charles Messier during the 18th century.
The peculiarity of M64 lies in its unique rotational pattern. It rotates in the opposite direction compared to other galaxies. NASA’s observations indicate that this distinct behaviour stems from a merging that occurred approximately a million years ago between M64 and its satellite galaxy.
The released image portrays the galaxy glowing in a brownish-orange hue, surrounded by swirling dust, with a bright yellow nucleus at its core. Blue and purple dots swirl around the central region. A dark band of absorbing dust positioned in front of the galaxy’s nucleus forms an ‘evil eye’ image. That is why it is given the name Evil Eye. These features were captured and shared by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.
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