New Delhi: The Hubble Space Telescope has captured the spiral galaxy Messier 90 or NGC 4569 in exquisite detail. The galaxy is at a distance of 55 million lightyears and is located in the constellation of Hubble. This is one of the few galaxies that is moving closer to the Milky Way. There are stellar nurseries in the inner regions of the galaxy, where new stars are being formed. There are dark lanes of gas and dust distributed throughout the galaxy, which are the raw material from which baby stars are being born. The blue regions are populations of young, energetic stars that are shining in the heat of their youth.
Messier 90 belongs to the nearby Virgo Cluster of galaxies, and is on an orbit that took it close to the center of the cluster around 300 million years ago. The increased density of gas in the central regions of the gas resulted in a pressure on the gas and dust in the galaxy, stripping it of some of the star forming material that keeps the galaxy young. This stripped away gas formed a diffuse halo around the galaxy. As a consequence, the capacity of the galaxy to birth new stars has reduced, and Messier 90 will eventually fade as a spiral galaxy because of passing through the core of the galaxy cluster.
The future of Messier 90
While Messier 90 is currently a spiral galaxy with well-defined spiral arms, it will evolve into a lenticular galaxy, brimming with old and ageing stars. The galaxy will be moving towards the Milky Way, so the view of the galaxy for humans will progressively improve. At the core of Messier 90 is a supermassive black hole, that is feeding on the surrounding gas and dust. This supermassive black hole plays a role in the distribution of gas and dust across the entire galaxy, and consequently, the process of star formation.
