More M94 -

M94 (NGC 4736), an especially bright early-type spiral galaxy

in Canes Venatici. The inner regions of this galaxy are probably the

brightest to be found among nearby normal galaxies. An interesting

feature is the very bright inner spiral pattern of star-forming

regions, especially prominent in blue light (and even more so in the

Analysis of the spectrum of the starlight

near the nucleus indicates that this is in a post-starburst phase,

having undergone an intense burst of star formation almost a billion

years ago which is now fading into the redder background of older

giant stars.

This color composite is from images taken in blue, yellow-green, and red

(BVR) filters, using a CCD at the 1.1-meter Hall telescope of Lowell

Observatory, by Bill Keel. It covers a region 4.7 arcminutes square.

From Bill Keel’s

at the University of Alabama.