Part of the Virgo cluster of galaxies. Based on recessional velocity of 1490 km/sec, about 65 million light years away, in good agreement with redshift-independent distance measurements of 45 to 85 million light years in diameter. Given that and apparent size of 6.6 by 3.2 arcmins, about 125 thousand light years in diameter. The distortion of its spiral arms is believed to be due to gravitational interaction with giant elliptical galaxy NGC 4697, which see for a widefield view of the region near these galaxies. For a high-resolution (copyrighted) image of NGC 4731, see apod100429. The image below shows an approximately 15 arcmin wide region centered on NGC 4731

     M94 is a spiral galaxy about 15 million light years distant, in the constellation of Canes Venatici. The central, bright "spiral" is about 30 thousand light years across, but the galaxy also has a broad faint ring of stars extending an additional 30 to 40 thousand light years beyond the central region. Recent investigation has shown that the outer ring has a spiral structure, with very active star formation. The image immediately below shows the galaxy as typically viewed. Below that is a version of the same image with the brightness gradient adjusted to better show the extent of the outer regions. Below that is a multi-spectral false color composite which shows the spiral arms filled with hot young stars and gases heated by them, in detail. One thing clearly shown by the multi-spectral image is the exceptional brightness of the 7 thousand light year wide ring of hot, bright blue stars surrounding the nucleus. Study of the radiation from these stars proves that they are less than 10 million years old, and suggests that such "starbursts", in which unusually large numbers of stars are formed near the nucleus of a galaxy, can be triggered by the distribution of mass within the galaxy. It had been thought that such events were only triggered by collisions with other galaxies.