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Hubble ACS Image of Elliptical Galaxy M87
The monstrous elliptical galaxy M87 is the home of several trillion stars, a supermassive black hole, and a family of 15,000 globular star clusters.
M87 is the dominant galaxy at the center of the neighboring Virgo cluster of galaxies, which contains some 2,000 galaxies.
Amid the smooth, yellow population of older stars, the two features that stand out most in this Hubble Space Telescope image of M87 are its soft blue jet and the myriad of starlike globular clusters scattered throughout the image.
The jet is a black-hole-powered stream of material that is being ejected from the core of the galaxy. As gaseous material from the center of the galaxy accretes onto the black hole, the resultant energy released produces a fire-hose stream of subatomic particles that are accelerated to velocities near the speed of light.
Being in the center of the Virgo cluster of galaxies, M87 may have accumulated some of its globular clusters by gravitationally pulling them from nearby dwarf galaxies that seem to be devoid of globulars today.
The 120,000-light-year-diameter galaxy lies at a distance of 54 million light-years from the Sun in the spring constellation Virgo.
This image was made from data taken in 2003 and 2006 with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys. The image is a composite of individual filtered data that cover the visible and infrared portions of the spectrum.
About the Object
- R.A. PositionR.A. PositionRight ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position.12h 30m 49.42s
- Dec. PositionDec. PositionDeclination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position.12° 23' 28.02"
- ConstellationConstellationOne of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears.Virgo
- DistanceDistanceThe physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs.54 million light-years (17 Megaparsecs)
About the Data
- Data DescriptionData DescriptionProposal: A description of the observations, their scientific justification, and the links to the data available in the science archive.
Science Team: The astronomers who planned the observations and analyzed the data. "PI" refers to the Principal Investigator.HST Proposal: 9401 P. Cote (Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics, Victoria BC), J. Blakeslee (Dominion Astrophysical Observatory/Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics and Washington State University), L. Ferrarese (Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics, Victoria, BC), A. Jordan (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), S. Mei (Observatoire Midi-Pyrenees), D. Merritt (Rochester Institute of Technology), M. Milosavljevic (California Institute of Technology), J. Tonry (University of Hawaii), E. Peng (Peking University, Beijing), and M. West (European Southern Observatory, Chile).
HST data also used from proposal 10543 : E. Baltz (Stanford University), T. Lauer (NOAO/AURA), A. Crotts (Columbia University), A. Gould (Ohio State University Research Foundation), P. Gondolo (University of Utah), M. Shara (American Museum of Natural History), J. Silk (University of Oxford), S. Zepf (Michigan State University), and D. Zurek (American Museum of Natural History).
- InstrumentInstrumentThe science instrument used to produce the data.HST>ACS/WFC
- Exposure DatesExposure DatesThe date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time.December 2002 - December 2003, January - March 2006
- FiltersFiltersThe camera filters that were used in the science observations.F475W (SDSS g), F606W (V), F814W (I)
- Object NameObject NameA name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object.M87
- Object DescriptionObject DescriptionThe type of astronomical object.Giant Elliptical Galaxy
- Release DateAugust 5, 2008
- Science ReleaseGlobular Clusters Tell Tale of Star Formation in Nearby Galaxy Metropolis
- CreditsNASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA); Acknowledgment: P. Cote (Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics) and E. Baltz (Stanford University)
Blue: F475W (SDSS g)Green: F606W (V)Red: F814W (I)
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Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
