Croc's Eye Galaxy

M94 in Canes Venatici is a spiral galaxy about 16 million light-years away, distinguished by an unusually bright and compact core surrounded by a ring of intense star formation — the source of its distinctive bull’s-eye or crocodile-eye appearance. This starburst ring is thought to be driven by a density wave resonance in the disc rather than by a galaxy merger, making M94 a relatively rare example of a starburst ring galaxy with a quiet interaction history. Its outer disc extends well beyond the bright inner ring and is detectable only in deep exposures.