The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has returned to Earth a beautiful image of a galaxy designated NGC 4621, also known as Messier 59.
The named object is an elliptical galaxy. Structures of this type are characterized by an ellipsoidal shape and brightness decreasing towards the edges.
Elliptical galaxies are formed from red and yellow giants, red and yellow dwarfs, and some white stars of not very high luminosity.
The galaxy Messier 59 is located in the constellation Virgo at a distance of approximately 50 million light-years from us. It should be noted that Messier 59 is one of the brightest members of the famous Virgo cluster of galaxies. It consists of at least 1300 (most likely around 2000) galaxies.
The photograph shown was taken using the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) aboard the Hubble, which was installed during one of the telescope's maintenance missions.
Source: 3dnews.ru