Astr111 Photography Projects, Spring 2007

M88 Spiral Galaxy (NGC 4501), Robert Dice

M88 is one of eight galaxies found on March 18, 1781 by Charles Messier in the Coma-Virgo region. This galaxy is about 47 million light years away from the Earth. The visual brightness of the galaxy itself is 9.6 magnitude. M88 is one of the brightest members of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies and is also a very symmetrical one as well. It is one of the most rewarding objects found by smaller instruments, according to today's astronomers.

Spiral Galaxies look like they flat white disks with yellowish bulgese at their centers. The disks are filled with cool gas and dust, interspersed with hotter ionized gas. The view that we are looking at is at a slight angle. This gives us an immaculate look at the galaxy from head on. Although the picture is very minute, by clicking on the picture you are able to see the galaxy in a larger view. As you can see by clicking on the larger view of the image there are long arms that protrude out from the galaxy.

References:
Frommert, Hartmut and Kronberg, Christine. "NGC 4501." Students for the Exploration and Development of Space.

<http://www.seds.org/messier/m/m088.html>

Wikipedia

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiral_Galaxy_M88>

The Cosmic Experience

Bennett, Jeffrey, Megan Donahue, Nicholas Schneider, and Mark Voit. The Cosmic Perspective. 3rd ed. San Francisco: Addison Wesley, 2004.