All Topics  
Virgo Cluster

 
Virgo Cluster

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Virgo Cluster
 
 
  Topics Virgo Cluster Topic Home

The Virgo Cluster is a cluster of galaxies at a distance of approximately 59 ± 4
1 E22 m

To help compare different orders of magnitude, this page lists distances starting at 10 zettametre .1 E+21 m* 24 Zm ? 2.5 million light years ? Distance to the Andromeda Galaxy...
 Mly (18.0 ± 1.2 Mpc
Parsec

The parsec is a units of measurement of astronomical units of length, equal to just under 31 orders_of_magnitude_#1012 kilometres , or about 3.26 light-years....
) away in the constellation
Constellation

A constellation is a group of stars that appear to have a physical proximity in the sky. The stars in a constellation are often vastly distant from each other, but they appear close to each other from the perspective of Earth....
 Virgo
Virgo (constellation)

Virgo is one of the constellations of the zodiac. Its name is Latin for virgin, and its symbol is . Lying between Leo to the west and Libra to the east, it is the second largest constellation in the sky....
. Comprising approximately 1300 (and possibly up to 2000) member galaxies, the cluster forms the heart of the larger Local Supercluster, of which the Local Group
Local Group

The Local Group is the galaxy groups and clusters of galaxy that includes our galaxy, the Milky Way. The group comprises over 50 galaxies , with its gravitational center located somewhere between the Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy....
 is an outlying member. It is estimated that its mass is 1.2 M?
Solar mass

The solar mass is a standard way to express mass in astronomy, used to describe the masses of other stars and galaxy. It is equal to the mass of the Sun, about two Names of large numbers kilograms or about 332,950 times the mass of the Earth, or 1,048 times the mass of Jupiter....
 out to 8 degrees of the cluster's center or a radius of about 2.2 Mpc.

Many of the brighter galaxies in this cluster, including the giant elliptical galaxy
Elliptical galaxy

An elliptical galaxy is a galaxy having an approximately ellipsoid shape and a smooth, nearly featureless brightness profile. They range in shape from nearly spherical to highly flattened and in size from hundreds of millions to over one trillion stars....
 Messier 87
Messier 87

Messier 87 is a giant elliptical galaxy. The galaxy is the largest and brightest galaxy within the northern Virgo Cluster, located about 55 million light years away....
, were discovered in the late 1770s and early 1780s and subsequently included in Charles Messier
Charles Messier

Charles Messier was a France astronomy most notable for publishing an astronomical catalog consisting of deep sky objects such as nebulae and star clusters that came to be known as the 103 "Messier objects"....
's catalogue of non-cometary fuzzy objects.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Virgo Cluster'
Start a new discussion about 'Virgo Cluster'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


The Virgo Cluster is a cluster of galaxies at a distance of approximately 59 ± 4
1 E22 m

To help compare different orders of magnitude, this page lists distances starting at 10 zettametre .1 E+21 m* 24 Zm ? 2.5 million light years ? Distance to the Andromeda Galaxy...
 Mly (18.0 ± 1.2 Mpc
Parsec

The parsec is a units of measurement of astronomical units of length, equal to just under 31 orders_of_magnitude_#1012 kilometres , or about 3.26 light-years....
) away in the constellation
Constellation

A constellation is a group of stars that appear to have a physical proximity in the sky. The stars in a constellation are often vastly distant from each other, but they appear close to each other from the perspective of Earth....
 Virgo
Virgo (constellation)

Virgo is one of the constellations of the zodiac. Its name is Latin for virgin, and its symbol is . Lying between Leo to the west and Libra to the east, it is the second largest constellation in the sky....
. Comprising approximately 1300 (and possibly up to 2000) member galaxies, the cluster forms the heart of the larger Local Supercluster, of which the Local Group
Local Group

The Local Group is the galaxy groups and clusters of galaxy that includes our galaxy, the Milky Way. The group comprises over 50 galaxies , with its gravitational center located somewhere between the Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy....
 is an outlying member. It is estimated that its mass is 1.2 M?
Solar mass

The solar mass is a standard way to express mass in astronomy, used to describe the masses of other stars and galaxy. It is equal to the mass of the Sun, about two Names of large numbers kilograms or about 332,950 times the mass of the Earth, or 1,048 times the mass of Jupiter....
 out to 8 degrees of the cluster's center or a radius of about 2.2 Mpc.

Many of the brighter galaxies in this cluster, including the giant elliptical galaxy
Elliptical galaxy

An elliptical galaxy is a galaxy having an approximately ellipsoid shape and a smooth, nearly featureless brightness profile. They range in shape from nearly spherical to highly flattened and in size from hundreds of millions to over one trillion stars....
 Messier 87
Messier 87

Messier 87 is a giant elliptical galaxy. The galaxy is the largest and brightest galaxy within the northern Virgo Cluster, located about 55 million light years away....
, were discovered in the late 1770s and early 1780s and subsequently included in Charles Messier
Charles Messier

Charles Messier was a France astronomy most notable for publishing an astronomical catalog consisting of deep sky objects such as nebulae and star clusters that came to be known as the 103 "Messier objects"....
's catalogue of non-cometary fuzzy objects. Described by Messier as nebula
Nebula

A nebula is an interstellar cloud of cosmic dust, hydrogen gas and Plasma . Originally nebula was a general name for any extended astronomy astronomical object, including galaxy beyond the Milky Way ....
e without stars, their true nature was not recognized until the 1920s.

The cluster subtends a maximum arc of approximately 8 degrees centered in the constellation Virgo. Many of the member galaxies of the cluster are visible with a small telescope.

The cluster is a fairly heterogeneous mixture of spirals and ellipticals. , it is believed that the spirals of the cluster are distributed in an oblong prolate
Prolate spheroid

A prolate spheroid is a spheroid in which the polar diameter is greater than the equatorial diameter....
 filament, approximately 4 times as long as wide, stretching along the line of sight from the Milky Way
Milky Way

The Milky Way, sometimes called simply the Galaxy, is the galaxy in which the Solar System is located. It is a barred spiral galaxy that is part of the Local Group of galaxies....
. The elliptical galaxies are more centrally concentrated than the spiral galaxies.

The cluster is an aggregrate of at least three separate subclumps centered on the galaxies M87, M86, and M49. Of the three subclumps, the one centered on M87 is the dominant one, with a mass of approximately 1014 solar mass
Solar mass

The solar mass is a standard way to express mass in astronomy, used to describe the masses of other stars and galaxy. It is equal to the mass of the Sun, about two Names of large numbers kilograms or about 332,950 times the mass of the Earth, or 1,048 times the mass of Jupiter....
es, which is approximately an order of magnitude larger than the other two subclumps.

The large mass of the cluster is indicated by the high peculiar velocities
Peculiar velocity

In physical cosmology, the term peculiar velocity refers to the components of a receding galaxy's velocity that cannot be explained by Hubble's law....
 of many of its galaxies, sometimes as high as 1,600 km
Kilometre

The kilometre , symbol km is a Units of measurement of length in the metric system, equal to one thousand metres.Slang terms for kilometre include click and kay ....
/s
Second

The second , sometimes abbreviated sec., is the name of a units of measurement of time, and is the International System of Units SI base unit of time....
 with respect to the cluster's center.

The Virgo cluster lies within the Local Supercluster, and its gravitational effects slow down the nearby galaxies. The large mass of the cluster has the effect of slowing down the recession of the Local Group from the cluster by approximately ten percent.

See also

  • Coma Cluster, another large, nearby cluster of galaxies
  • Fornax Cluster
    Fornax Cluster

    At a distance of approximately 62.0 light-year , the Fornax Cluster is the second richest galaxy cluster within 100 million light-years, although it is much smaller than the Virgo Cluster....
    , a smaller nearby cluster of galaxies


External links

  • on Virgo cluster.
  • , SEDS Messier pages