Lord of the stars: The monstrous elliptical galaxy M87 is the home of several trillion stars, a supermassive black hole, and family of 13,000 globular star clusters. M87 is the dominant galaxy at the centre of the neighbouring Virgo Cluster of galaxies, which contains some 2,000 galaxies. Amid the smooth yellow population of older stars, the two features that stand out most in this Hubble Space Telescope image of M87 are its soft blue jet and the myriad of starlike globular clusters scattered throughout the image. The jet is a black-hole-powered stream of material that is being ejected from the core of the galaxy. As gaseous material from the centre of the galaxy accretes onto the black hole, the resultant energy released produces a fire-hose stream of subatomic particles that are accelerated to velocities near the speed of light. Being in the centre of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies, M87 may have accumulated some of its globular clusters by gravitationally pulling them from nearby dwarf galaxies that seem to be devoid of globulars today. The 120,000-light-year-diameter galaxy lies at a distance of 54 million light-years from the Sun in the spring constellation Virgo. This image was made from data taken in 2003 and 2006 with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys. The image is a composite of individual filtered data that cover the visible and infrared portions of the spectrum.

Name: Messier 87, NGC 4486
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : EllipticalLocal Universe : Galaxy : Size : Giant
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Virgo
Distance: 55 million light years
Release date: 5 August 2008, 15:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)Acknowledgment: P. Cote (Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics) and E. Baltz (Stanford University)

Constellation of Virgo and Coma Berenices (ground-based image): The Virgo Cluster of galaxies is located about 60 million light-years away in the direction of the constellation Virgo. Virgo and other nearby constellations are seen in this ground-based image.

Name: Virgo Cluster
Type: Early Universe : Galaxy : Grouping : Cluster
Category: Galaxies
Distance: 55 million light years
Release date: 5 August 2008, 15:00
Credit: A. Fujii and Z. Levay (STScI)

Wide-field view of the Virgo cluster of galaxies (ground-based image): Virgo cluster of galaxies image taken with the Palomar Observatory 48-inch Schmidt telescope as part of the Digitized Sky Survey.

Name: Virgo Cluster
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Grouping : Cluster
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Virgo
Distance: 55 million light years
Release date: 5 August 2008, 15:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Digitized Sky SurveyAcknowledgment: Z. Levay (STScI) and D. De Martin (ESA/Hubble)

Wide-field view of the Virgo cluster of galaxies (ground-based image): Virgo cluster of galaxies image taken with the Palomar Observatory 48-inch Schmidt telescope as part of the Digitized Sky Survey.

Name: Virgo Cluster
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Grouping : Cluster
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Virgo
Distance: 55 million light years
Release date: 5 August 2008, 15:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Digitized Sky SurveyAcknowledgment: Z. Levay (STScI) and D. De Martin (ESA/Hubble)

Wide-field view of the Virgo cluster of galaxies (ground-based image): Virgo cluster of galaxies image taken with the Palomar Observatory 48-inch Schmidt telescope as part of the Digitized Sky Survey.

Name: Virgo Cluster
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Grouping : Cluster
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Virgo
Distance: 55 million light years
Release date: 5 August 2008, 15:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Digitized Sky SurveyAcknowledgment: Z. Levay (STScI) and D. De Martin (ESA/Hubble)

Wide-field view of the Virgo cluster of galaxies (ground-based image): Virgo cluster of galaxies image taken with the Palomar Observatory 48-inch Schmidt telescope as part of the Digitized Sky Survey.

Name: Virgo Cluster
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Grouping : Cluster
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Virgo
Distance: 55 million light years
Release date: 5 August 2008, 15:00
Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Digitized Sky SurveyAcknowledgment: Z. Levay (STScI) and D. De Martin (ESA/Hubble)