Infrared image of the Blackeye Galaxy M64, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope's Nicmos-3 camera.

In this image, red corresponds to glowing hydrogen gas, the raw material for star birth. In visible light, many of these regions are hidden by dust clouds, in particular of M64's "Black Eye" feature. Starsappear bright, star clusters as white dots, and the galactic nucleus is brightest because of its high concentration of stars.

Three filters were used: red, blue, and green. Red represents emission at the Paschen Alpha line (light from glowing hydrogen) at a wavelength of 1.87 microns. Blue shows the galaxies in near-infrared light, measured between 1.4 and 1.8 microns (H-band emission). Green is a mixture of the two.

Credit: Torsten Boeker, Space Telescope Science Institute, and NASA

Amateur images of M64

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Hartmut Frommert
Christine Kronberg
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Last Modification: May 4, 1999