There’s an amazing photo that’s been captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, and it shows Messier 90. This is a spiral galaxy that is situated at about 60 million light-years from our own Milky Way, and it seems that it’s getting closer.
Experts know that the galaxy is coming closer because of the light that they can see coming from it.
“The galaxy is compressing the wavelength of its light as it moves towards us, like a slinky being squashed when you push on one end,” Hubble reps stated.
It seems that on the visible light spectrum, shorter wavelengths look blue and due to the fact that its light is compressed from our perspective, “Messier 90 exhibits a phenomenon called “blueshift,” which indicates to scientists that Messier 90 is moving closer to us,” Space.com writes.
It’s also interesting to note that almost all the other galaxies that we can see are moving away from us with the expansion of the universe, says Hubble.
Messier 90 is part of the Virgo Cluster
Messier 90 is included in the Virgo Cluster which is a group of more than 1,200 galaxies.
According to astronomers, Messier 90’s blueshift is more than likely triggered by the cluster’s incredible mass which can accelerate the galaxies within the cluster to extremely high velocities and sends them on bizarre orbits.
The strange paths that the galaxies are taking send them towards and away from our planet over time, says Hubble.
The Virgo Cluster it’s moving away from us but some of the galaxies within it are moving faster than the cluster, and so does the Messier 90.
From Earth, it seems that the galaxy is moving towards us even though the galaxies from the same cluster seem to move away at high velocities.
The Messier objects have been discovered by astronomer Charles Messier – the origin of the galaxy’s name.
Rada attended the courses in the Faculty of Letters, Romanian-English section, and finished the Faculty of Theatre and Television, Theatrical Journalism section, both within the framework of Babeş-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca. Up ’til now, she reviewed books, movies, and theatre-plays, enjoying subjects from the cultural niche. Her experience in writing also intersects the IT niche, given the fact that she worked as a content editor for firms that produce software for mobile devices. She is collaborating with online advertising agencies, writing articles for several websites and blogs.