What is the Black Eye Galaxy?

The Black Eye Galaxy is a galaxy which was discovered by Edward Pigott in March 1779, and independently by Johann Elert Bode in April of the same year, as well as by Charles Messier in 1780.  It can be seen in the night sky with either a good telescope or good field glasses, so long as you’re in a place with no excess light pollution. It is a spiral pin wheel galaxy in the Coma Berenices Constellation and is approximately 17 +/- million light years away. The interstellar medium of Messier 64 consists of two counter-rotating disks that are approximately equal in mass. The inner disk contains the prominent dust lanes of the galaxy. The stellar population of the galaxy exhibits no measurable counter-rotation. Possible formation scenarios include a merger with a gas-rich satellite galaxy in a retrograde orbit or the continued accretion of gas clouds from the intergalactic medium.

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