More M90

Lowell Observatory image of M90

The smooth-armed spiral galaxy Messier 90 (NGC 4569) in the core of the

Virgo galaxy cluster, shown in a three-color reconstruction from BVR

CCD frames taken with the 1.1-meter Hall telescope at Lowell Observatory.

The bright unresolved nucleus is especially prominent; it shows spectral

features indicating a fading burst of star formation. The nucleus looks

so starlike that it has at times been taken to be a foreground star and

ignored during measurements of the galaxy’s redshift (actually blueshift

in this case, since M90 is orbiting rapidly enough within Virgo to

overcome the Hubble velocity we would normally observe).

Credit: Bill Keel, University of Alabama.

• This image was featured as Astronomy Picture of the Day March 16, 1996

• More Messier images from Bill Keel’s collection

  

  Spiral galaxy M90 in the Virgo Cluster was imaged here by amateurs of the

  D. Nelson Limber Memorial Observatory

  in the Texas Hill Country near San Antonio, from their

  “Cruise the Virgo Cluster” page.

• More images from the D. Nelson Limber Memorial Observatory

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  Hartmut Frommert

  ([email protected])

  Christine Kronberg

  ([email protected])

  

  

  

  

  Last Modification: 2 Jun 1998, 21:50 MET