I have had hundreds of people look through my telescopes, and I have found that people fall into two categories. About 90% will look at an object like this (M87) and express little if any interest. But 10% will be deeply impacted--not by the diminutive size of the image, but by a visceral sense of what they are observing. What exactly is depicted in this image that should elicit wonder and awe? M87 is a supergiant elliptical galaxy containing up to 2 trillion suns in the "realm of the galaxies" in Virgo some 53 million light years away.
Note the small “jet” protruding from the center of the galaxy. This is debris being ejected by an enormous, rotating, black hole. The Hubble Space Telescope measured the velocity of this jet at 4-6 times the speed of light. This seemed odd since generally nothing can travel faster than light. NASA chalked it up to an optical illusion of cosmic proportion, or some other phenomenon which is not well understood. The jet is causing intense radio emissions, making M87 one of the most energetic galaxies in the visible universe.
How about you? Does this image elicit little interest, or, are you transfixed by the indescribable vastness, beauty, and mystery associated with this small sphere?
Elliptical Galaxy M87 in Virgo
Date Taken:May 31, 2014
Location Taken:New Mexico Skies Observatory, Mayhill, NM USA
Conditions of Location: Equipment Used:Planewave 17" corrected Dall-Kirkham telescope, FLI PL6303E camera
Processing Used:8 x 3 minutes RGB, and 12 a 5 minutes L, for a total exposure of 2.5 hours, processed in Maxim DL and Photoshop
Distance from Location:53 million light years
Constellation:Virgo
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