The Black Eye Galaxy (also called Messier 64, M64, or NGC 4826) was discovered by Edward Pigott on March 23, 1779, and independently by Johann Elert Bode on April 4 of the same year, and by Charles Messier in 1780. a spectacular dark-absorbing dust lane in front of the galaxy’s bright core, earning it the nickname “Black Eye” or “Demon Eye”. M64 is well known among amateur astronomers for its appearance in small telescopes. This galaxy is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Coma Berenices.
Complete data about black eye galaxy
Name = M 64, NGC 4826, Sleep beauty galaxy, Black eye
Constellation = Coma berenices
Type = Spiral Galaxy
Distance from Earth = 19 million light years
Diameter = 51,000 light years
Position = R.A. 12h 51.8m
Declination = 22° 14”
Position angle = 115o
Magnitude = 8.4
Brightness level = 12.4
Size = 10.3′ x 5.0′
Black eye galaxy history
In 1781, Charles Messier, the French astronomer, conducted a photographic survey of galaxies and nebulae. Among the galaxies that have been discovered by Charles Messier, there is one galaxy that has a strange property, which is to have a dark ring of fog (the shroud and arms). The ring of dark mist surrounded its brightly lit core. Because it looks like a human eye, Messier named the galaxy the Black Eye or the Evil Eye.
Based on the Messier catalog, the galaxy was given the number/name M 64. The classification of the M 64 galaxy is the same as the Milky Way galaxy, which is a spiral galaxy of the SB type. That is, normal spiral galaxies are spiral in shape with arms like trunks sticking out from a bright core. The core is smaller than the more open spiral arms. All of the stars in this Black Eye galaxy appear to circle around its core in the same direction that it rotates clockwise.
The peculiarity of the “Black Eye” galaxy according to Messier is that the color of the shroud and its dark arms looks like a ring of fog that surrounds a bright core/center. Because of its distance from Earth and the limitations of technology at that time, Messier has not been able to obtain further information about the state of the galaxy.
The nature of the black eye galaxy
The interstellar medium of Messier 64 consists of two opposing rotating discs of approximately equal mass. Inside the disk contains dust trails that protrude from this galaxy. The galaxy’s stellar population shows none detected rotating opponents. Possible formation scenarios include fusion with gas-rich satellite galaxies in breech orbits, or continued growth of gas clouds from the intergalactic medium.
The strangeness of the black eye galaxy
With the development of technology and the latest observations made by Hubble space telescopes, it has recently revealed the secrets of the “Black Eye” or “Evil Eye” galaxy. The new discovery of galaxy M 64 is the presence of a unique appearance and strange movement of stars.
Recent observations using Hubble binoculars show that the gas mist in galaxy M 64 near the core moves in one direction, but the gas cloud on the outside moves in the opposite direction from the star near the core. Then there are new stars that form in the border region between the two opposing rotating halves. The stars in the region look as if they are under pressure from inside and outside.
In addition, there are young, newly formed stars that are blue and very hot (blue is the color with the greatest heat energy, red.). Around the new stars, a glowing pink cloud of hydrogen gas glows, which glows when exposed to ultraviolet light from the young stars.
From these findings, the secrets of the “Black Eye” galaxy were revealed and it turned out that the previously obtained information was lost. Messier originally thought of the Black Eye galaxy as having a shroud and arms that rotated around the core in the same direction, i.e. clockwise. In fact, the gas mist that is in the outer/furthest part of the core moves in the opposite direction to the gas mist that is near the core.
Astronomers suspect that the anomaly or abnormality is due to the Black Eye Galaxy once “sucking” nearby galactic satellites (small galaxies), resulting in collisions between galaxies. This event is thought to have occurred more than billions of years ago.
This reason is reinforced by the basic theory of the universe, collisions between galaxies are more frequent/many than collisions between stars. It is suspected that the direction of the galaxy’s satellites (small galaxies) when they collide is in the opposite direction to the movement of the shroud and arm of the Black Eye galaxy which rotates in a clockwise direction. The galaxy satellites hit the gas fog that is outside/far from the core of the M 64 galaxy, so that the part of the gas or gas fog that is outside/far from the M 64 galaxy core rotates in the opposite direction to the original direction (in the direction of the origin of the small galaxy). ). The result is as seen in his current movement.
Now the small galaxy is almost completely melted into M 64. Its stars are partly merged with the larger galaxy and some are scattered into the vast intergalactic space. Even so the traces or effects of the collision are still visible today, namely in its movement against the current at the edge of the “Black Eye” galaxy.