Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have obtained a remarkable new view of the intermediate spiral galaxy Messier 90.
This Hubble image shows Messier 90, an intermediate spiral galaxy located 53.8 million light-years away in the constellation of Virgo. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / D. Thilker / J. Lee / PHANGS-HST Team.
Messier 90 is located approximately 53.8 million light-years away in the constellation of Virgo.
Also known as M90 or NGC 4569, this spiral galaxy was discovered by the French astronomer Charles Messier on March 18, 1781.
Messier 90 is the brightest member of the Virgo Cluster, a group of about 1,300 — and possibly up to 2,000 — galaxies.
This galaxy is remarkable — it is one of the few galaxies seen to be traveling toward our Milky Way Galaxy, not away from it.
“In 2019, an image of Messier 90 was released using data from Hubble’s Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) taken in 1994 soon after the camera’s installation,” Hubble astronomers said in a statement.
“That image has a distinctive stair-step pattern due to the layout of WFPC2’s sensors.”
“WFPC2 was replaced in 2010 by the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3),” they added.
“Hubble used WFC3 when it turned its aperture to Messier 90 again in 2019 and 2023.”
“The resulting data were processed to create this stunning new image, providing a much fuller view of the galaxy’s dusty disk, its gaseous halo and its bright core.”
“The inner regions of Messier 90’s disk are sites of star formation, which is highlighted here by red H-alpha light from nebulae, but this is absent in the rest of the galaxy,” the astronomers said.
“Messier 90 sits among the galaxies of the relatively nearby Virgo Cluster, and the course of its orbit took it on a path near the cluster’s center about three hundred million years ago.”
“The density of gas in the inner cluster weighed on Messier 90 like a strong headwind, stripping enormous quantities of gas from the galaxy and creating the diffuse halo that can be seen around it here.”
“This gas is no longer available for Messier 90 to form new stars with, and it will eventually fade as a spiral galaxy as a result.”
“Its orbit through the Virgo cluster has accelerated it so much that it’s in the process of escaping the cluster entirely, and by happenstance it’s moving in our direction — other galaxies in the Virgo cluster have been measured at similar speeds, but in the opposite direction.”
“Over the coming billions of years, we will be treated to a yet better view of Messier 90 while it evolves into a lenticular galaxy.”
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