Astr110 Photography Projects, Spring 2005

The Eyes Galaxy Pair, Jennifer Postema

Known as the twin galaxies, The Eyes is a pair of galaxies in Virgo, consisting of NGC4438, a barred spiral galaxy with a magnitude of 10.9, and NGC4435, a peculiar spiral galaxy with a magnitude of 11.7. The galaxies received their name because they look like a pair of eyes staring down from the sky, as noted by the nineteenth century observer, L.S. Copeland. Astronomers originally believed that the two galaxies were an interacting pair, but now know that The Eyes are just a line of sight grouping. The Eyes galaxies are about 40 million light years away from earth.

References:
Kopernik Astro Society Binghampton, NY
Arps Catalog of Peculiar Galaxies