Compact core of galaxy M87

Esahubble_opo9201a_1024

esahubble_opo9201a January 16th, 1992

Credit: Tod R. Lauer (NOAO), Sandra M. Faber (CSC), C. Roger Lynds (NOAO), and the Wide Field/Planetary Camera Imaging Team.

NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope clearly shows the central core and accompanying jet of the giant elliptical galaxy M87. This near-infrared image was taken with HST's Wide Field and Planetary Camera (WF/PC), in high resolution mode, on June 1, 1991. The image is being presented on Thursday, January 16th at the 179th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Atlanta, Georgia. The steady increase in brightness of M87 towards its center is readily apparent in the image, showing that the stars in MS7 are strongly concentrated towards its nucleus, as if drawn into the center and held there by the gravitational field of a massive black hole. Theoretical models suggest that the structure of Mg7 is consistent with a central 2.6 billion solar mass black hole. High resolution spectroscopic observations are now needed to confirm this possibility.

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo9201a/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
IRAS 12282+1240 M 87 Messier 87 NGC 4486 Virgo Galaxy
Subject - Local Universe
Galaxy > Type > Elliptical
Galaxy > Size > Giant
Galaxy > Component > Center/Core
Esahubble_opo9201a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 12h 30m 49.0s
DEC = 12° 23’ 30.9”
Orientation
North is 150.9° CCW
Field of View
0.5 x 0.4 arcminutes
Constellation
Virgo

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Yellow Hubble (WFPC1) Infrared (I) 785.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Yellow
Esahubble_opo9201a_1280
×
ID
opo9201a
Subject Category
C.5.1.4   C.5.2.1   C.5.4.9  
Subject Name
IRAS 12282+1240, M 87, Messier 87, NGC 4486, Virgo Galaxy
Credits
Tod R. Lauer (NOAO), Sandra M. Faber (CSC), C. Roger Lynds (NOAO), and the Wide Field/Planetary Camera Imaging Team.
Release Date
1992-01-16T06:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo9201a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
WFPC1
Color Assignment
Yellow
Band
Infrared
Bandpass
I
Central Wavelength
785
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
187.704261716, 12.3919115639
Reference Dimension
2544.0, 2144.0
Reference Pixel
1272.0, 1072.0
Scale
-3.16951291786e-06, 3.16951291786e-06
Rotation
150.90000000000006
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
ESA/Hubble
URL
http://www.spacetelescope.org/
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2
City
Garching bei München
State/Province
Postal Code
D-85748
Country
Germany
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
ESA/Hubble
Publisher ID
esahubble
Resource ID
opo9201a
Metadata Date
2003-12-09T17:35:22+01:00
Metadata Version
1.1
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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