Messier 94 - Crocodile Eye Galaxy
Messier 94 is a spiral galaxy located around 16 million light-years from Earth in the constellation of the Hunting Dogs (CVn). It was discovered in
March 1781 by P. Méchain and has a brightness of 8.1mag and an apparent size of 14'x12' arcminutes.
The true diameter of Messier 94 is around 60,000 light-years, while its absolute magnitude is M= -20.2mag, which corresponds to the luminosity
of around 10 billion suns. It also belongs to the Hubble Type "Sab".
The structure of the galaxy is quite interesting. It has an inner ring with a diameter of just over one arcminute, which corresponds to a true size of
5,400 light-years. This is a so-called "starburst ring", in which a large number of new stars have formed within a short period of time. The reason
for this was the influx of gas. In addition to this inner ring, there is also an outer "ring", which is more of a complex spiral structure that contains
23% of the galaxy's total mass and is only clearly visible in IR. In this outer area of the galaxy, star formation is around twice as high as in the inner halo.
The reason for the complex outer structure is not yet fully understood. It is assumed that it could have been formed by the capture of a satellite galaxy,
but it is also possible that Messier 94 interacted with another galaxy in the past.
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Messier 94 is a great sight in my 20" telescope. It appears not only very bright, but also has a very bright inner region, in the center of which a luminous stellar
nucleus can be seen. This is followed by the inner halo and the ring structure can also be clearly seen. Some parts of the ring appear a little brighter, especially
towards the north.
Outside the starburst ring, the very faint outer halo can be seen, which was easy to recognize with averted vision. Unfortunately, the conditions that
evening were not particularly good, so I was unable to see the extremely faint structures in this area.
