This is an artist's concept of the view of the nighttime sky from the surface of a hypothetical planet orbiting an "intergalactic" star in the Virgo cluster of galaxies, based on recent research with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Billions of years ago, the star may have been tossed out of its home galaxy into the dark emptiness of intergalactic space by a collision or close encounter between galaxies. Now an aged red supergiant star, its dull cherry red glow floods the desolate landscape. Hubble Space Telescope discovered 600 similar "outcast" stars in a small region in the Virgo cluster, 60 million light-years away from Earth. The stars detected are all bright red-giants. Many more dimmer stars, beyond Hubble's detection, may be among the galaxies as well. These stars are truly "intergalactic" because they are so isolated their motion is probably governed by the gravitational field of the cluster as a whole, rather than the pull of any one galaxy. The nighttime sky, in this imaginary view, only contains the dim fuzzy glow of elliptical and spiral-shaped Virgo galaxies - individual stars are too far away to be seen. The brightest galaxy in the image is M87, a giant elliptical galaxy containing a black hole and visible jet of high-speed particles.
Credits
Illustration: James Gitlin (STScI)| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | Virgo Cluster |
| R.A. Position | 12h 30m 49.42s |
| Dec. Position | 12° 23' 27.99" |
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | A name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object. |
| Object Description | The type of astronomical object. |
| R.A. Position | Right ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Dec. Position | Declination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Constellation | One of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears. |
| Distance | The physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs. |
| Dimensions | The physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description |
|
| Instrument | The science instrument used to produce the data. |
| Exposure Dates | The date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time. |
| Filters | The camera filters that were used in the science observations. |
| About The Image | |
| Image Credit | The primary individuals and institutions responsible for the content. |
| Publication Date | The date and time the release content became public. |
| Color Info | A brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented. |
| Orientation | The rotation of the image on the sky with respect to the north pole of the celestial sphere. |
