¿ Astronomy Picture of the Day [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2021 March 29 [2]Messier 64, the Evil Eye Galaxy, is pictured. See Explanation. M64: The Evil Eye Galaxy Image Credit: [3]ESA/[4]Hubble & [5]NASA & the [6]PHANGS-HST Team; Acknowledgement: [7]Judy Schmidt Explanation: Who knows what [8]evil lurks in the eyes of galaxies? The Hubble knows -- or in the case of [9]spiral galaxy M64 -- is helping to find out. [10]Messier 64, also known as the Evil Eye or Sleeping Beauty Galaxy, may seem to have evil in its eye because all of its [11]stars rotate in the same direction as the interstellar gas in the galaxy's central region, but in the opposite direction in the outer regions. [12]Captured here in great detail by the Earth-orbiting [13]Hubble Space Telescope, enormous dust clouds obscure the near-side of [14]M64's central region, which are laced with the telltale reddish glow of hydrogen associated with [15]star formation. [16]M64 lies about 17 million [17]light years away, meaning that the light we see from it today left when the [18]last common ancestor between [19]humans and [20]chimpanzees roamed the Earth. The dusty eye and [21]bizarre rotation are likely the result of a billion-year-old [22]merger of two different galaxies. Tomorrow's picture: sprite mountain __________________________________________________________________ [23]< | [24]Archive | [25]Submissions | [26]Index | [27]Search | [28]Calendar | [29]RSS | [30]Education | [31]About APOD | [32]Discuss | [33]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [34]Robert Nemiroff ([35]MTU) & [36]Jerry Bonnell ([37]UMCP) NASA Official: Phillip Newman [38]Specific rights apply. [39]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: [40]ASD at [41]NASA / [42]GSFC & [43]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2103/M64_Hubble_4032.jpg 3. https://www.esa.int/ 4. https://www.spacetelescope.org/ 5. https://www.nasa.gov/ 6. https://phangs.stsci.edu/#team 7. https://www.flickr.com/photos/geckzilla/ 8. https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Shadow 9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiral_galaxy 10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Eye_Galaxy 11. https://youtu.be/h9za1CP9ImA?t=24 12. https://esahubble.org/images/potw2108a/ 13. https://history.nasa.gov/hubble/ 14. https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2020ApJ...897..106K/abstract 15. https://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/how-do-stars-form-and-evolve 16. http://www.messier.seds.org/m/m064.html 17. https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/light-year/en/ 18. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_human_evolution 19. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap190818.html 20. https://i.ytimg.com/vi/9VMayf-6zE4/hqdefault.jpg 21. https://youtu.be/Gh5lBr08WJw 22. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120604.html 23. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210328.html 24. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 25. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 26. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 27. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 28. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 29. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss 30. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 31. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 32. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=210329 33. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210330.html 34. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 35. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 36. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 37. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 38. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 39. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 40. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 41. https://www.nasa.gov/ 42. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 43. http://www.mtu.edu/