On Saturday’s riddle, I featured M64, the Sleeping Beauty Galaxy.  Now, take a look at why this is called the Beauty:

NASA/Hubble ST - The Sleeping Beauty/M64

Can you believe that?  She doesn’t look real, does she?  It’s almost as if this incredible sight was deliberately painted, then stuck out 24 million light years away, waiting for someone to happen upon her.

You are seeing the result of two galaxies colliding about a billion years ago.  The center, where you see white blaze, is rotating clockwise.  In the outer portion of the galaxy you see this black, gaseous area.  This area is rotating counter-clockwise.  Now, where the two regions meet, the “shear”, there is this incredible explosion of new, hot, blue stars.  That’s the result of the tremendous forces involved pushing and moving against each other.  Around those gorgeous blue stars, you’ll see pink emission nebulae.  This is where the light from the stars is shining into the interstellar gasses and dust, and reflecting this glorious pink color (which our Hubble picked up).

The Beauty lies in the Coma Berenices constellation.  This is a fascinating region of the cosmos.  The Coma Berenices was named after an historical figure, one of the few constellations to do so.  In this case, the honor went to Queen Berenices II of Egypt.  Although Coma Berenices isn’t a very large constellation, she contains the Northern portion of the Virgo Cluster, along with several globular clusters.  She boasts eight Messier objects; one of which is the Beauty.  You will find a tremendous number of galaxies here, assorted nebulae, quasars, and the Northern Galactic Pole.

Enjoy.