Galaxy Messier 87: Wide-field View in The Virgo Cluster | Schmidt Telescope

Galaxy Messier 87: Wide-field View in The Virgo Cluster | Schmidt Telescope

Image of the Virgo cluster of galaxies taken with the Palomar Observatory 48-inch Schmidt Telescope as part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2 (DSS2). The giant elliptical galaxy Messier 87 is seen in the center, while Messier 84 and 86 are the two bright galaxies forming part of the small group on the center right of the image. New observations obtained with European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) have shown that the halo of stars around Messier 87 has been truncated, possibly because of interaction with Messier 84. The observations also reveal that Messier 87 and 86 are moving towards each other.

The Digitized Sky Survey (DSS) is a digitized version of several photographic astronomical surveys of the night sky, produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute between 1983 and 2006.

Learn more about the Schmidt Telescope:

https://sites.astro.caltech.edu/palomar/about/telescopes/oschin.html

Credit: ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2

Release Date: May 20, 2009

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