M87 and the Central Part of the Virgo Cluster

Compare M87 and its neighborhood in the

Virgo Cluster of

galaxies as it appears in the visible and in the X-ray part of the

spectrum. The material in this cloud is extremely hot, with a temperature

of 10-100 million degrees, i.e. at least as hot as the hydrogene burning

cores of sun-like stars. Of course, it is of extreme low density, though.

The X-ray emitting part of the cloud extends over a volume about

1 million light years across; the cloud itself may fill the whole Virgo

cluster.

The image is from

the Virgo Cluster page of

Prof. White‘s

collection at the University of Alabama

Compare the

whole central part of the Virgo cluster

in visible versus X-ray light

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Hartmut Frommert

([email protected])

Christine Kronberg

([email protected])

Last Modification: 18 Mar 1998, 21:00 MET