Starburst Galaxy M94
Credit:
The spiral galaxy
M94 is somewhat unusual in that it shows a great ring of
bright young stars
particularly apparent when observed in
ultraviolet light,
as shown above. Such a high abundance of these young blue stars may
cause a galaxy to be designated a
starburst galaxy. It is likely that
many of the stars seen in the above ring were created when a density wave
moving in the galaxy compressed existing galactic gas. The above picture
was taken by the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope during the
Astro-2 mission in March 1995.