- I remember this painting from my childhood. I had subscribed to Odyssey, an astronomy magazine for children, starting sometime in ‘85 or ‘86. One evening my parents brought us kids to the public library in Stillwater, Minnesota. I was delighted to find the library had copies of the magazine from before the start of my subscription. I remember this picture. It was compelling to me. This is a B&W microfilm copy found through Anna’s Archive. I am still looking for the color version.
painting in Odyssey magazine of
- Messier 87 (Wikipedia)
Messier 87 (also known as Virgo A or NGC 4486, generally abbreviated to M87) is a supergiant elliptical galaxy in the constellation Virgo that contains several trillion stars. One of the largest and most massive galaxies in the local universe, it has a large population of globular clusters—about 15,000 compared with the 150–200 orbiting the Milky Way—and a jet of energetic plasma that originates at the core and extends at least 1,500 parsecs (4,900 light-years), traveling at a relativistic speed. It is one of the brightest radio sources in the sky and a popular target for both amateur and professional astronomers.
