"Evil Eye" reveals galaxies' secrets.

• Position: Galaxy NGC 4826

New Mexico State University astronomer Rene Walterbos is investigating the Evil Eye, a peculiar galaxy that appears to stare back at astronomers like an eyeball. He and Canadian astronomer Robert Braun have mapped out the Evil Eye's gas motions with the Very Large Array Radio Telescope near Socorro, Tex.

The Evil Eye, also known as NGC 4826, is an estimated 15,000,000 light-years away from Earth. (A single light-year equal 5.8 trillion miles.) The "eye" actually is concentrated starlight mixed with a diskshaped dusty gas cloud. Just when astronomers had reached consensus that most galaxies like the Milky Way no longer were changing significantly, along came the Evil Eye.

What makes it unusual are gaseous disks that are rotating in opposite directions, Walterbos explains. One coincides with the dusty disk and rotates in the same direction as the stars. Outside of that, a second disk goes the other way. This suggests that the Evil Eye must have obtained new material since its formation, possibly the result of two colliding galaxies. "It may also indicate that the galaxy is still slowly attracting material from outer space."...