![]() Together with the other signpost stars of spring, Spica and Regulus of the constellations Virgo and Leo, this stellar trio forms the Spring Triangle-the best celestial hunting ground for galaxies. One of the most brilliant late springtime stars is Arcturus of the Boötes constellation. In May, the moon is our best guide to finding Leo and Virgo, writes Abigail Beall. Looking out above the disk of our galaxy, there are fewer stars blocking our line of sight to the rest of the universe. Once in a while the moon or planets sweep past the constellations, helping us to spot them. That's because this part of the sky looks away from our own Milky Way. Our Local Group is considered an outlying member, in the suburbs of this giant Virgo supersize cluster of galaxies.Īt this time of year, late nights reveal considerably fewer bright stars in the high southern sky than seen in winter. Here we encounter one of the most celebrated groups of galaxies: the Virgo cluster.Īt about 60 million light-years from Earth, the Virgo cluster is made up of several thousand galaxies, peppered mostly with large spirals and some smaller elliptical ones. Click here for a map better suited for use in the field. The map displays stars to magnitude 10, and deepsky objects to magnitude 12. This a more detailed view of the constellation. Head outside on any clear, moonless night in April and look toward the Virgo constellation low in the southeast. Click the map for a 916x1200 version of the above. Peering deeper into intergalactic space at, say, around a few tens of millions of light-years, we find other similar groups of galaxies. Next, NASA's Herschel Space Observatory resolved finer details to reveal that each black dot on Planck's map was in fact a dense concentration of galaxies.Īutumn is the best time to see our neighbor Andromeda. This data, in the far-infrared to radio parts of the spectrum, showcased 234 objects that the team now believes are precursors of clusters we see today. (Read more about the search for ancient galaxies.)įirst they combed through the massive all-sky survey maps produced by the European Space Agency's Planck mission as it mapped the radiation left over from the big bang. The team used the combined power of two space telescopes, Planck and Herschel, and a natural magnifying lens effect to find the distant galaxies. Frye of the University of Arizona's Steward Observatory and colleagues report in an upcoming issue of the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. That places the newly discovered clusters very early in the universe's history, Brenda L. The universe itself is thought to be 13.8 billion years old. So the light we see now shows the galaxies as they were some 10 billion to 11 billion years ago. Light from these newborn galaxies traveled vast distances-10 billion to 11 billion light-years-to reach the two space telescopes that detected them. Galaxies like our Milky Way cluster together today, but how they formed these cosmic clubs has remained a mystery until now. Using a telescope, you can see the Virgo Cluster during the times its constellation is visible.Astronomers have peered into the early universe and spotted a trove of baby galaxies huddled together, in what may be the oldest galactic clusters yet discovered. ![]() This elliptical galaxy most likely has a black hole at its center. ![]() The largest galaxy nestled inside Virgo is called by its namesake constellation and is also known as M87. The Virgo Cluster is approximately 60 million light years away. Although the Sombrero Galaxy is invisible to the human eye, you might be able to spot it with a telescope in May.ĩ. It's visible in the Northern Hemisphere during. Scientists speculate that the Sombrero Galaxy is approximately 28 million light years away. (Image credit: StellariumWeb) Virgo lies between the constellations Leo and Libra, at 13 hours right ascension and 2 degrees South declination. ![]() There’s a theory that a swirling black hole exists in the middle, suggested by pictures from the Hubble Telescope in 1996. The Sombrero Galaxy is known as M104, and was discovered in 1781 by Pierre Méchain, one of Charles Messier’s colleagues. Yet, scientists know very little for certain about this hat-shaped elliptical galaxy. The light leaving Spica at time the Sombrero Galaxy was discovered has now reached Earth. Virgo shares the Sombrero Galaxy with the Corvus constellation. All-sky charts of the night sky from, showing what stars and planets you'll be able to see in the night sky on any given day of the year. ![]()
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