Ways4eu WordPress.com Blog
SPA View of ways4eu.wordpress.com
Messier 88
on Wed Dec 28 2022
Charles Messier described the eighty-eight
As a spiral nebula, stars unseen
But we now know it’s a galaxy bright
Filled with stars, gas, and dust in flight
M88 is located in the Virgo cluster
Some fifty million light-years away, in muster
Its spiral arms, blue and young, are easy to trace
With pink regions forming stars and dust lanes in place
The core is yellow, with older stars ablaze
M88 spans over one hundred thousand light-days
As a spiral nebula, stars unseen
But we now know it’s a galaxy bright
Filled with stars, gas, and dust in flight
M88 is located in the Virgo cluster
Some fifty million light-years away, in muster
Its spiral arms, blue and young, are easy to trace
With pink regions forming stars and dust lanes in place
The core is yellow, with older stars ablaze
M88 spans over one hundred thousand light-days
Charles Messier described the 88th entry in his 18th century catalog of Nebulae and Star Clusters as a spiral nebula without stars. Of course the gorgeous M88 is now understood to be a galaxy full of stars, gas, and dust, not unlike our own Milky Way. In fact, M88 is one of the brightest galaxies in the Virgo Galaxy Cluster some 50 million light-years away. M88’s beautiful spiral arms are easy to trace in this sharp cosmic portait. The arms are lined with young blue star clusters, pink star-forming regions, and obscuring dust lanes extending from a yellowish core dominated by an older population of stars. Spiral galaxy M88 spans over 100,000 light-years. via NASA https://ift.tt/JzQCv9K