M90

Located in the Virgo cluster, M90 is a bright spiral galaxy about 55 million light years distant.

Radio studies indicate that M90 has lost 90% of its neutral hydrogen making star forming impossible in the spiral arms.  The loss occurs through a process known as ram pressure stripping where the pressure resulting from the movement of the galaxy through the intracluster medium in its cluster exceeds the gravitational force binding the hydrogen to the galaxy.  As a consequence, the spiral arms appear relatively smooth and featureless. By contrast, the centre displays significant nebula and star formation activity.

Unlike many galaxies, M90 is blue shifted indicating it is heading towards us, having broken away from the rest of the galaxies in the Virgo Cluster. M90 is now 1.5million light years distant from the centre of the Virgo cluster.

The dwarf galaxy IC 3583 can also be seen towards the top, centre of the image. The galaxy is irregular, having no discernible structure, although it does have a bar of stars running through its centre. It is thought to be gravitational interacting with M90.

Throughout the image smaller galaxies can also be seen in the background.

The LRGB image represents a total integration time of 16 hours and was taken by my Esprit 150.