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Optical image copyright ©2006- 2010 R Jay GaBany

January 30- February 5, 2006
RCOS 20- inch, SBIG STL-11000
550 minutes Luminance, 90 minutes Red, 54 minutes Green and 108 minutes Blue (All unbinned)

M94 (NGC4736):
a Panchromatic Perspective




An investigation by:
  • Ignacio Trujillo, Inma Martinez-Valpuesta and David Martínez-Delgado   ( IAC),
  • Jorge Peñarrubia   (Institute of Astronomy, Univ. of Cambridge),
  • R. Jay GaBany   (Blackbird Observatory),
  • Michael Pohlen   (Cardiff)
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    M94 is one of the closest examples of a young spiral galaxy with low inclination. It has been traditionally considered (due to its optical appearance) as a galaxy surrounded by a closed stellar ring. Our team's multi wavelength analysis concludes that this view is incorrect.

    Confirmed in the UV and in the IR, our investigation of M94 reveals that its outer region is a disk with a spiral arm structure.

    This outer disk is very active forming stars and contains approximately 23% of the galaxy's total mass- the most likely cause being the dynamic effect of the star system's central oval distortion. More...


  • Click here for the release announcement
  • Click here to view multi-spectral comparison imagery.
  • View a N-body simulation movie here.
  • Click here for a larger optical image
  • Click here to download complete PDF documentation.


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