The Hubble Space Telescope has snapped a new image of the "Black Eye" galaxy, so named because an ancient cosmic smashup produced a dark ring and a roiling, conflicted interior.

Hubble scientists say what looks like a black eye in the Hubble picture is actually a dark band of dust that stands out vividly in front of the galaxy's bright nucleus.

The galaxy is officially known as M64, but astronomers have nicknamed it the "Black Eye" or "Evil Eye" galaxy.

In some earlier images, the "Black Eye" appears to be a fairly normal spiral galaxy. And as happens in most galaxies, all the stars in M64 are rotating in the same direction.

But detailed studies in the 1990s found that while all the stars are heading the same way, interstellar gas at the outer reaches of the galaxy is rotating in the opposite direction.

(CRI February 7, 2004)