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Credit & Copyright: Matt BenDaniel
Explanation:
Well over a thousand galaxies are known members of
the Virgo Cluster,
the closest large cluster of galaxies to our own
local group.
The galaxy cluster is difficult
to see
all at once because
it covers such a large area
on the sky.
Still,
this excellent
telescopic view records the region of the
Virgo Cluster around its dominant giant elliptical
galaxy M87.
M87 can be seen as a fuzzy patch near the picture's bottom center.
In fact, a close examination of the image will
reveal that many of the "stars" are
actually surrounded by a telltale fuzz, indicating
that they are
Virgo Cluster galaxies.
How many galaxies can you pick out?
Click on the image for an uncropped, labelled version which includes the
NGC catalog
numbers for most of the visible galaxies.
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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NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: Virgo Cluster - galaxy cluster
Publications with words: Virgo Cluster - galaxy cluster
See also: