Messier 88 is an active galaxy with a central supermassive black hole that engulfs gas and dust
By Adam Kovac edited by Claire Cameron
ESA/Hubble/NASA/D. Thilker
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NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has captured a delicate dance of celestial bodies in a new image of a distant galaxy moving toward the center of a large cluster of other galaxies.
Photograph of the galaxy Messier 88 (M88), also known as NGC 4501, shows the bright glow created by its central black hole– which is estimated to be around 100 million times more massive than our sun – because it sucks in gas and dust. The many bright red dots scattered around M88’s spiral arms are old stars, while the pink and blue represent star clusters and dust clouds.
The galaxy itself is large, spanning about 130,000 light years across, but that is only part of the larger one. Virgo Clusterwhich is made up of more than 1,000 galaxies. While M88’s stars orbit its central black hole, the galaxy itself orbits the center of the cluster. Its journey brings it closer both to the middle of this swarm and to some of the other individual galaxies in the cluster.
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Ultimately, in 200 to 300 million years, M88 will reach its closest point to the neighboring galaxy Messier 87. The gravitational effects of the proximity of the two galaxies are already observed. In the new Hubble image, some of the gas on the outer edge of M88 can be seen compressing and accumulating. M88 also appears to contain less cold gas, which fuels star formation, than would be expected in a galaxy its size. This is all due to a process known as dynamic pressure stripping, in which the gravitational pull of another celestial body removes the gas.
Although it is located approximately 60 million light years away in the constellation Coma BereniceM88 is a fairly bright object in the night sky. The galaxy was discovered by its namesake, astronomer Charles Messier, in 1781. It was a particularly productive day for Messier: M88 was just one of nine celestial objects he discovered that night.
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