M 87 Elliptical Galaxy in Virgo

M 87 is a super-giant elliptical galaxy at the center of the Virgo Cluster and is located about 53.5 million light years from the sun. The local group of galaxies are also a part of the Virgo Ssuper Cluster. M87 is a strong source of radiation, particularly radio waves.  This huge elliptical galaxy drives a relativistic jet of energetic plasma originating at the core and extending outward of it’s super massive black hole - at least 5000 light years long.

Find a Hubble image of the relativistic jet here.

Image data:
LRGB (L 7x10m, R 5x10m, G 5x10m, B 5x10m), 80cm f/7 Astrooptik Keller corrected cassegrain,
FLI Proline 16803, Baader Filters, Prompt 7 CTIO Chile seeing 0.7-1 arcsec
Acquisition: Philipp Keller, Processing: Bernd Flach-Wilken

 

 

Last modified on Wednesday, 09 March 2016 21:12

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