Last Look
Last Look
Image courtesy Caltech/NASA
Like a cosmic pinwheel, spiral galaxy Messier 94 shines bright in ultraviolet light in one of the last snapshots taken by NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) satellite before it was shut down on June 28.
Sitting 17 million light-years from Earth in the northern constellation Canes Venatici, the galaxy's core has a distinct ring structure wrapped by a set of spidery arms made of millions of stars.
After a decade of scanning the skies for everything from ghostly nebulae to distant star factories, GALEX mapped hundreds of millions of galaxies across ten billion light-years.
"In the last few years, GALEX studied objects we never thought we'd be able to observe, from the Magellanic Clouds to bright nebulae and supernova remnants in the galactic plane," said David Schiminovich of Columbia University in New York City, in a statement.
"Some of its most beautiful and scientifically compelling images are part of this last observation cycle," said the GALEX team scientist.
