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Hubble ACS Image of 100 Virgo Cluster Galaxies

Hubble ACS Image of 100 Virgo Cluster Galaxies
These images taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope show the globular cluster systems of 100 galaxies observed within the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) Virgo Cluster Survey. Globular clusters, dense bunches of hundreds of thousands of stars, have some of the oldest surviving stars in the universe. Most of the star clusters in the Virgo survey are older than 5 billion years. The Hubble study found evidence that these globular clusters are more likely to form in dense areas where star birth occurs at a rapid rate, instead of uniformly from galaxy to galaxy. Comprised of over 2,000 galaxies and located about 54 million light-years away, the Virgo cluster is the nearest large galaxy cluster to Earth. These composite images were made from the advanced camera's full field-of-view observations. Astronomers also used modeling data to fill in a narrow gap between the camera's detectors. The images were taken from December 2002 to December 2003.

About the Object

  • Constellation
    ConstellationOne of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears.
    Virgo

About the Data

  • Data Description
    Data 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).

  • Instrument
    InstrumentThe science instrument used to produce the data.
    HST>ACS
  • Exposure Dates
    Exposure DatesThe date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time.
    December 2002 to December 2003
  • Object Name
    Object NameA name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object.
    Virgo Cluster Galaxies
  • Object Description
    Object DescriptionThe type of astronomical object.
    ACS Virgo Cluster Survey Galaxies
  • Release Date
    August 5, 2008
  • Science Release
    Globular Clusters Tell Tale of Star Formation in Nearby Galaxy Metropolis
    Read the release
  • Credits
    NASA, ESA, and E. Peng (Peking University, Beijing)

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Last Updated
Feb 17, 2025
Contact
Media

Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov

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