NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captures spiral galaxy harboring black hole

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captured an image of an active spiral galaxy on a journey that will last hundreds of millions of years.

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The galaxy, known as Messier 88 (M88), is located about 63 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices.

Astronomers say M88 is an active galaxy, meaning that its center harbors a supermassive black hole that is absorbing gas and dust. They estimate that the black hole is about 100 million times as massive as the sun.

M88 is part of the Virgo Cluster, a giant group containing more than a thousand galaxies. All of these galaxies are moving within the cluster due to gravity.

Over the next few hundred million years, M88 will gradually travel toward the cluster’s center.

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During this journey, M88 will pass close to Messier 87, one of the largest galaxies in the cluster.

As it moves through the cluster, M88 will lose some of its gas in a process called ram pressure stripping.

NASA said scientists have already seen signs of this process in M88. The galaxy appears to have much less cold gas and the raw fuel needed for star formation than expected.

This loss of gas will affect the galaxy’s ability to form new stars and alter the course of its evolution.

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According to NASA, scientists observed M88 to better understand how galaxies change in crowded environments.

The team used Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3, which can resolve individual star clusters and nebulae in galaxies tens of millions of light-years away.

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By studying galaxies such as M88, researchers can learn how these long cosmic journeys affect their future.