M58, M59, M60, M89, M90
Galaxies M58, M59, M60, M89, and M90 are part of the Virgo cluster of galaxies. Hold your mouse cursor over the image to see object identifications. Messier 60, at lower left-center, is the third brightest elliptical E2 galaxy in the Virgo cluster. It is also the main component of a four-galaxy sub-cluster, the closest known compact group of galaxies. NGC 4647, another member of this compact group, can be seen in this image just to the upper right of M60. Recent studies of this pair by the Hubble Space telescope indicate that these two galaxies may be starting to interact tidally. Shining at magnitude 8.8, M60 is located at a distance of 60 million light-years away with apparent diameter of 7.6 x 6.2 arcminutes, which corresponds to a true size of 120,000 light-years in space. M60 was discovered by Johann Gottfried Koehler on April 11, 1779. Messier 58, at lower right, is a magnitude 9.6 barred spiral type SBb galaxy located 68 million light-years away that subtends an apparent size of 6 x 4.8 arcminutes. It was discovered by Charles Messier in 1779. Messier 59, below center, is a magnitude 9.7 elliptical E5 galaxy located 60 million light-years away that subtends an apparent size of 5.4 x 3.7 arcminutes. It is believed that M59 contains a supermassive black hole that has a mass of 270 million times that of the Sun. M59 was discovered by Johann Gottfried Koehler in 1779. Messier 89, near the right edge of the image, is a magnitude 9.9 elliptical galaxy located 50 million light-years away that subtends an apparent size of 3.5 x 3.5 arcminutes. M89 is a little bit unusual in that it appears perfectly spherical. It also has a large collection of more than 2,000 globular clusters that surround it. It was discovered by Charles Messier on March 18, 1781. Messier 90, at top right, is a magnitude 9.4 type SBab spiral galaxy located 59 million light-years away that subtends an apparent size of 9.5 x 4.4 arcminutes. It is one of the larger and brighter spiral galaxies in the Virgo Cluster. Like M89, M90 also has a large population of approximately 1,000 globular clusters surrounding it. It was discovered by Charles Messier in 1781. An interacting pair of galaxies, NGC 4568 and NGC 4567, known as the Siamese Twins, can be seen in the lower right corner of the image. They are also located 60 million light-years distant. Spiral galaxy NGC 4568 shines at magnitude 11.7, and NGC 4567 is a face-on spiral shining at 12.1 magnitude. They were discovered by William Herschel in 1784. These two galaxies are physically interacting, probably colliding and merging together in the future. Other galaxies in the image include NGC 4654, NGC 4639, NGC 4620, IC 3718, NGC 4640, NGC 4607, NGC 4606. North is to the top in the above image.
|
||||||||
|
