In spiral galaxies, majestic
winding arms
of young stars, gas, and dust rotate in a flat disk around a
bulging galactic nucleus.
But elliptical galaxies seem to be simpler.
Lacking gas and dust to form new stars, their
randomly swarming older stars, give them an ellipsoidal
(egg-like) shape.
Still, elliptical galaxies can be very large.
Centered in
this
telescopic view and over 120,000 light-years in
diameter, larger than our own Milky Way,
elliptical galaxy M87
(NGC 4486) is the dominant galaxy of the
Virgo
Galaxy Cluster.
Some 50 million light-years away,
M87 is
likely home to a supermassive
black hole responsible
for a high-energy jet of particles emerging from the giant
galaxy's central region.
In this well-processed image, M87's jet is near the one o'clock
position.
Other galaxies are also in the field of view,
including large Virgo Cluster ellipticals
NGC 4478
right of center and
NGC 4476
near the right edge.
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