5.8.08

Picture of the Day


(click on image to enlarge)

"M87 is a massive elliptical galaxy smack in the heart of Virgo. It probably has something like a trillion stars, five times the number the Milky Way has. Over billions of years it’s built up its mass, eating the stars from other galaxies as they fly by (it also eats entire galaxies)."

and...

"The image there is of M87. Take a close look; just about every single point of light you see there is a globular cluster! The beam coming from the center is a blast of particles and radiation being emitted from M87’s central supermassive black hole (which is a whole ‘nuther story unto itself)."

Phil Plait - Bad Astronomer

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