Spiral Galaxy M90
Bill Keel (University of Alabama)
1.1-meter Hall Telescope, Lowell Observatory
Spiral galaxy M90
is near the center of the
Virgo Cluster of Galaxies - the
closest cluster of galaxies to the our own
Milky Way Galaxy. Also dubbed
NGC 4569, this galaxy has a very compact and bright nucleus. Because of
M90's proximity and motion inside the Virgo Cluster,
M90
actually shows a blueshift - indicating that it is moving toward us
rather than away. Most
galaxies show a
redshift which indicates that
they move away from us. Calibrating exactly how redshift relates to
distance would indicate a scale for our universe - a topic of much debate
recently.