Explanation:
Beautiful island universe
M94 lies
a mere 15 million light-years
distant in the northern constellation of the hunting dogs,
Canes
Venatici.
A popular target for astronomers
the brighter inner part of the face-on spiral
galaxy is about 30,000 light-years across.
Traditionally, deep images have been interpreted as showing
M94's inner spiral region surrounded by a faint, broad ring of stars.
But a
new multi-wavelength investigation
has revealed previously
undetected spiral arms
sweeping across the
outskirts of the galaxy's disk, an outer disk actively engaged
in star formation.
At optical wavelengths, M94's outer spiral arms are followed in this
remarkable discovery image,
processed to enhance the outer disk structure.
Background galaxies are visible through the faint outer arms, while
the three spiky foreground stars are in our own Milky Way galaxy.
Note:
An APOD editor will review great space images tonight in
Houghton, Michigan.
digg_url = 'http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100114.html'; digg_skin = 'compact';
