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суббота, 30 сентября 2017 г.

M89: Elliptical Galaxy with Outer Shells and Plumes | APOD …

M89: Elliptical Galaxy with Outer Shells and Plumes | APOD …


M89: Elliptical Galaxy with Outer Shells and Plumes



| APOD
Image Credit & Copyright: Mark Hanson


Can you see them? This famous Messier object M89, a seemingly simple elliptical galaxy, is surrounded by faint shells and plumes. The cause of the shells is currently unknown, but possibly

tidal tails related to debris left over from absorbing numerous small galaxies in the past billion years. Alternatively the shells may be like ripples in a pond, where a recent collision with another large galaxy created density

waves
that ripple through this galactic giant. Regardless of the actual cause, the

featured image

highlights the increasing consensus that at least some elliptical

galaxies

have formed in the recent past, and that the outer halos of most

large galaxies are not really smooth

but have complexities induced by frequent interactions with – and accretions of –

smaller nearby galaxies. The halo of our own

Milky Way Galaxy

is one example of such

unexpected complexity. M89 is a member of the nearby Virgo cluster of galaxies which lies about 50 million light years distant.


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