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> Central part of the Virgo cluster
Central part of the Virgo cluster
author: J.Lodriguss/Novapix
reference: a-amg02-00057
Image Size 300 DPI: 28 * 18 cm
This photo shows the heart of the Virgo cluster of galaxies. Located about 70 million light years away, the Virgo cluster is a gigantic collection of several thousand galaxies that dominate our local part of the universe. It is the center of our local supercluster of galaxies which includes members of our local group, the Milky Way (our own galaxy), M31, M32, M110, M33, the Magellanic clouds, and others. Markarian's Chain of galaxies is to the upper right, including giant elliptical galaxies M86 and M84. M87 is another giant elliptical galaxy at lower left in the photo. Also called Virgo A, this galaxy contains nearly 3 trillion solar masses. It lies at a distance of 60 million light years and may be as large, physically, in space, as 1/2 million light years in diameter.
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