Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2015 August 4
Virgo Cluster Galaxies
Image Credit & Copyright: Rogelio Bernal Andreo
Explanation: Well over a thousand galaxies are known members of
the Virgo Cluster, the closest large cluster of galaxies to our own
local group. In fact, the galaxy cluster is difficult
to appreciate all at once because it covers such a large area on the sky. This careful wide-field
mosaic of telescopic images clearly records the central region of the Virgo Cluster through faint
foreground dust clouds lingering above the plane of our own Milky Way galaxy. The cluster's dominant giant elliptical
galaxy M87, is just below and to the left of the frame center. To the right of
M87 is a string of galaxies known as
Markarian's Chain. A closer examination of the image will reveal many Virgo cluster member
galaxies as small fuzzy patches.
Sliding your cursor over the image will label the larger galaxies using
NGC catalog designations. Galaxies are also shown with
Messier catalog numbers, including
M84, M86, and prominent colorful spirals
M88,
M90, and
M91. On average, Virgo Cluster galaxies are measured to be about 48 million light-years away.
The Virgo Cluster distance has been used to give an important determination of the Hubble Constant and
the scale of the Universe.
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Tomorrow's picture: X-ray echoes
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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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