SOCO IMAGE GALLERY


 

M 87    (NGC 4486)

M 87 is a huge elliptical galaxy located in the Spring constellation Virgo. With a diameter of 132,000 LY and a mass of around 2700 billion Suns, M 87 is probably the largest galaxy in our region of the Universe. It lies at a distance of 54.9 million LY at the center of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies. It is surrounded by a large number of companion glaxies and an estimated 16,000 globular clusters! The three prominent galaxies lying along a straight line below M 87 in my image are, from left to right, NGC 4486A, NGC 4478, and NGC 4476. The bright object directly above M 87 in the image is the foreground star HD 108915 (over-exposed in my image).
Besides being the largest galaxy in our region, the other thing M 87 is known for is its jet. This jet of hot plasma stretches 65,000 LY from the center of the galaxy. The source is a supermassive black hole (or possibly two) at the galaxy's core. While not readily visible in the version of my image presented above, it is easily visible when my imagery is processed to emphasize the core of the galaxy (see my recent Blog entry).
M 87 was discovered by Charles Messier on the night of 18 March 1781. He also observed several other members of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies on that night.

Date(s) Acquired: 03 April 2016
Telescope: Orion 120mm EON Apochromatic Refractor
Camera: QSI Model 583 with TeleVue 2X PowerMate

 

   Exposure Time (min) 
   Number of Exposures
   RGB
   15
   
   -
   
   -
   OIII
   -
   RGB
   6
   
   0
   
   0
   OIII
   0

 

Processing:
Master red, green, and blue images created using SuperSIAM.
Color composite image created using Basic Processing Procedure III.
Color composite image contrast-stretched using Adobe Photoshop.




 

 

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