Black Eye Galaxy (M64 · NGC 4826) — SABa in Coma Berenices
The Black Eye Galaxy (M64, NGC 4826) as a framed fine art print. SABa in Coma Berenices, 10.5 arcminutes across, its light 20 million years old. Measured by…
About Black Eye Galaxy (M64 · NGC 4826)
The Black Eye Galaxy is named for the dark band of dust that lies across one side of its bright centre. It holds a puzzle: the gas in its outer regions turns in the opposite direction to the stars and gas closer in, almost certainly the trace of a smaller galaxy it swallowed long ago. It was discovered in 1779 and added to Messier's catalogue soon after.
What you are looking at
The Black Eye Galaxy is an early-type spiral: a large, bright central bulge wrapped in smooth, tightly wound arms. A weak bar of stars crosses its centre. Its disc is steeply tilted, about 64° from face-on, so it appears as a long oval. From edge to edge its visible disc spans about 60,000 light-years (taking its redshift distance, which for a galaxy this near is approximate), about half the width of the Milky Way.
What astronomers have recorded
SIMBAD, the reference database astronomers use, classes it as a Seyfert galaxy: its nucleus is lit by gas falling into its central black hole. It is cited in 1,024 scientific papers indexed by SIMBAD, and recorded there under 45 different catalogue designations.
When this light set out
Its light has been travelling for about 20 million years. When it left, grasslands were spreading across the continents. The galaxy is moving away from us at about 408 km/s (0.9 million mph), carried by the expansion of the universe. For a galaxy this close, its own motion through space is a large share of that speed, so the distance worked out from it is approximate; distances measured from individual stars in it can differ.
Finding it in the sky
The Black Eye Galaxy lies in Coma Berenices. It is best placed on spring evenings: around 9:30 pm in May it stands about 72° high in the south, seen from the middle of the United States.
By apparent size it is number 14 of the 12,657 galaxies on the Galaxy Origins register.
Measurements
| Catalogue | PGC 44182 |
|---|---|
| Morphological type | SABa |
| Angular diameter | 10.52′ |
| Right ascension | 12h56m43.7s |
| Declination | +21°40′55.6″ |
| Constellation | Coma Berenices |
| Inclination | 64.0° |
| Light travel time | 20 million years |
| Bar | yes, from the catalogue |
Check every figure above in the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database
What is sold
A print of this galaxy and the record of the calculation, once. When it sells it leaves the register and is not offered again. We assign no names and no ownership — nobody can sell you those.
At 10.5 arcminutes this is a Exceptional galaxy, which is the tier where a real photograph shows clear structure and dust lanes. The tier comes from the measured diameter, not from a price list.
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