This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the spiral galaxy Messier 88. (ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker)
A new Hubble Space Telescope image offers a fresh look at Messier 88 (M88), a spiral galaxy about 63 million light-years from Earth that harbors a supermassive black hole in its core.
“Astronomers estimate the black hole is around 100 million times as massive as the sun, and it appears to be powering outflows of gas from the galaxy’s center,” NASA said.
Around the core of M88 is a population of older reddish stars, while the galaxy’s tightly wound spiral arms are lined with pink and blue star clusters and dark clouds of dust.
Also known as NGC 4501, M88 is part of the Virgo Cluster, a massive collection of more than 1,000 galaxies bound together by gravity. Scientists say M88 is on a journey that will carry it deeper into the Virgo Cluster over the next few hundred million years, where it will gradually transform due to the influence of gravity from nearby galaxies.
“M88 appears to have considerably less cold gas – the raw fuel for star formation – than expected for a galaxy of its size, especially in its outer regions,” NASA said. “This is a clear sign that M88 will be altered by its journey, which will affect its ability to form stars and alter the course of its evolution.”
Astronomers used Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 to study M88 as part of a program focused on how spiral galaxies change in crowded environments. By looking closely at star clusters and nebulae inside galaxies like M88, researchers hope to better understand how conditions inside a galaxy cluster can reshape a galaxy’s future.