A small segment of the "Big Picture". The bright, inclined spiral galaxy in the upper left is M90. Its blue color is due to the ongoing star formation. Our own Galaxy, the Milky Way, would probably look very similar if viewed from M90. The yellowish, slightly irregular looking galaxy just below the center is an elliptical galaxy M89. Its irregularities are due to a relatively recent (in astronomical terms - probably about a billion years ago!) merger with another galaxy. Image credit: The Palomar-Quest Team, California Institute of Technology |