NASA has released a spectacularly detailed image captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope that shows a spiral galaxy called Messier 98.
This Hubble image shows the spiral galaxy Messier 98. The image is a composite of separate exposures acquired by Hubble’s Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2). Two filters were used to sample various wavelengths. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / V. Rubin et al.
Messier 98 is located in the constellation Coma Berenices and is approximately 54 million light-years away from Earth.
This spiral galaxy was discovered in March 1781 by the French astronomer Pierre Méchain, a colleague of Charles Messier.
Messier measured the position of Messier 98 and cataloged it about a month later, immediately before finishing the third, final published edition of his astronomical catalog.
Also known as M98, NGC 4192, LEDA 39028 and UGC 7231, Messier 98 is one of the faintest objects in Messier’s catalogue.
The galaxy is a member of the Virgo Cluster, a group of about 1,300 — and possibly up to 2,000 — galaxies.
It has a blue shift and is approaching us at about 280,000 mph (125 km/s).
Messier 98 is estimated to contain about a trillion of stars, and is full of cosmic dust — visible in the Hubble image as a web of red-brown stretching — and hydrogen gas.
This abundance of star-forming material means that the galaxy is producing stellar newborns at a high rate.
The galaxy shows the characteristic signs of stars springing to life throughout its bright center and whirling arms.
