Object Analysis

Messier 90 (M90) is a large spiral galaxy in the constellation Virgo, located roughly 58 million light-years away. It is one of the largest and most massive spiral galaxies in the Virgo Cluster. M90 is particularly notable because it is one of the few galaxies in the cluster that is blue-shifted, meaning it is moving toward our Milky Way rather than away from it.

The galaxy's spiral arms appear very "smooth" and lack the bright, knotty star-forming regions typical of most spirals. This is because M90 has been almost completely stripped of its gas and dust by its rapid movement through the Virgo Cluster. Without the raw material for new stars, the galaxy is effectively "fading" and transitioning into a lenticular state.

Despite its lack of recent star formation in the outer arms, the core of M90 remains active. It contains a supermassive black hole and a small region of star birth at the very center. M90 is a fascinating example of a "passive" spiral galaxy, showing what happens when a galaxy is starved of its life-giving gas by the hostile environment of a dense cluster.