Astr110 Photography Projects, Spring 2005

M-49 , Nicole Peterson

M-49 is an Elliptical galaxy. A galaxy is a large mass of stars and interstellar matter. Elliptical galaxies are said to have a ellipsoidal shape. Elliptical galaxies also are thought to have no global angular movement. These galaxies contain little to none of interstellar matter. This galaxy was the first of many in the Virgo cluster of galaxies. The magnitude of M-49 just about reaches 8.5 which makes it one of the brightest galaxies in the Virgo cluster.

M-49 is said to be very bright, especially towards the middle.It can be seen best at Twilight and described as being very large and round. It even has been speculated to be one of the or the largest galaxies in the Virgo cluster.It is also fading away quite rapidly.The distance is 60 million light years away and the calculated linear size is 80,000 ly.

References:
http://www.seds.org/messier/Mdes/dm049.html
http://www.seds.org/messier/galaxy.html