The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured an exquisite new image of the spiral galaxy Messier 90 (M90), located in the constellation Virgo. The image, recently released, showcases a striking view of M90’s bright core, dusty disk, and gaseous halo. The image was created using data collected by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) during observations in 2019 and 2023. This marks an update from an earlier image of the galaxy captured in 1994 using the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2), whose sensors caused a distinctive stair-step pattern in the previous view.
Messier 90, also known as NGC 4569, sits approximately 55 million light-years away from Earth. It is a prominent member of the Virgo Cluster, a large grouping of galaxies located relatively close to our own Milky Way. M90’s inner regions are particularly noteworthy, as they are still sites of star formation, visible in red H-alpha light emitted by nebulae in the galaxy’s disk. However, much of the galaxy’s gas has been stripped away during its journey through the dense core of the Virgo Cluster, a process that began about 300 million years ago.
The cluster’s central region contains a high concentration of gas, which exerts a strong headwind on any galaxies passing through it, including M90. As a result, enormous amounts of gas were pulled from the galaxy’s disk, forming a diffuse halo around it. This loss of gas has significant implications for the galaxy’s future. Without this crucial material, M90 is no longer able to sustain the formation of new stars, meaning the galaxy will gradually fade over time.
Despite its distance from Earth, M90 is one of the few galaxies that is actually getting closer to us. Due to its high-speed orbit within the Virgo Cluster, M90 has been accelerating, and it is now in the process of escaping the cluster entirely. This trajectory, combined with its future evolution, means that over billions of years, Messier 90 will likely transform into a lenticular galaxy—an intermediate stage between spiral and elliptical galaxies.
Astronomers have measured other galaxies in the Virgo Cluster traveling at similar speeds but moving in the opposite direction. The unusual dynamics of M90’s movement offer scientists a unique opportunity to study galaxy evolution in a cluster environment, providing valuable insights into how interactions between galaxies and their surroundings influence their structure and star formation activity.
This latest image of M90 demonstrates Hubble’s ongoing ability to capture detailed and vivid portrayals of distant celestial objects. The new observations from Hubble’s WFC3, a replacement for the earlier WFPC2 in 2009, allow for a much clearer and fuller view of the galaxy’s structure, shedding light on its current state and future development.
