Explanation:
Charles Messier described the 88th entry in his 18th century
catalog of
Nebulae
and Star Clusters as a spiral nebula without stars.
Of course the
gorgeous M88
is now understood to
be a galaxy full of stars, gas, and dust, not unlike
our own Milky Way.
In fact, M88 is one of the brightest galaxies in the
Virgo
Galaxy Cluster
some 50 million light-years
away.
M88's beautiful spiral arms are easy to trace in this
colorful
cosmic portait.
The arms are lined with young blue
star clusters, pink
star-forming regions,
and obscuring dust lanes
extending from a yellowish
core dominated by an older population of stars.
Spiral galaxy M88 spans over 100,000 light-years.
digg_url = 'http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100130.html'; digg_skin = 'compact';
