Black Eye Galaxy
M64 · NGC 4826
Named for the dark band of dust across its bright nucleus. Its inner and outer gas rotate in opposite directions.
Black Eye is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Coma Berenices about 17 million ly from Earth. It spans roughly 54,000 ly, about 54% of our Milky Way's width. The light reaching us tonight left it about 17 million years ago.
Spiral
type · SABa
17 million ly
from Earth · measured
54k ly
across
8.5
apparent magnitude
Because its light is 17 million ly from home, you are seeing Black Eye as it looked roughly 17 million years ago. The photons left before that much of history had passed, and are only now reaching us.
Nearest galaxies
WhirlpoolSpiral11 million ly
apartMessier 106Spiral11 million ly
apartPinwheelSpiral12 million ly
apartSunflowerSpiral13 million ly
apartBode'sSpiral14 million ly
apartCigarStarburst14 million ly
apart
Worlds in the same direction on the sky→apartMessier 106Spiral11 million ly
apartPinwheelSpiral12 million ly
apartSunflowerSpiral13 million ly
apartBode'sSpiral14 million ly
apartCigarStarburst14 million ly
apart
Source: structural data (position, morphology, brightness, redshift) from OpenNGC (CC BY-SA). Distance from published measurements.