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.
- More Messier object images from Bill Keel’s collection
- M94 images from the Astro-2 Space Shuttle mission
- Amateur images of M94
Last Modification: 20 Jun 1999 13:40 MET