[m49a.jpg]

[M49 in red, Bill Keel] [PNG]

M49 (NGC 4472) is by some measures the optically brightest galaxy in the Virgo cluster, slightly outshining M87. It lies in a subclump of the cluster about 4 degrees south of the cluster center.

This pseudocolor image is from a red-light CCD frame taken with the Lowell Observatory 1.1-meter telescope (actually, it was taken to calibrate some narrow-band filters on a galaxy with no detectable H-alpha emission).

From Bill Keel's image collection at the University of Alabama.

  • More images from Bill Keel

    [M49, 4-m KPNO b/w, NOAO]

    Elliptical galaxy M49, of type E4 in the constellation Virgo, is one of the more prominent member galaxies of the Virgo Cluster, although perhaps less well known than M87, M86 or M84. As a typical elliptical galaxy, it has almost no gas or dust between its stars and shows no evidence of recent star formation. At its distance of about 60 million light years away, the visible galaxy in this image is about 85,000 light years across, while its faintest outlayers extend out to a diameter of about 160,000 light years. This image was taken with the KPNO 4-meter Mayall telescope in 1975.
    Credit: AURA/NOAO/NSF

  • More information on this image (N.A. Sharp, NOAO)

    [M49, color CCD KPNO/NOAO]

    This short exposure CCD picture shows elliptical galaxy M49's smooth and mostly featureless structure, typical for elliptical galaxies. The image was taken with the KPNO 0.9-m telescope in December 1996.
    Credit: AURA/NOAO/NSF

  • More information on this image (N.A. Sharp, NOAO)

  • More NOAO images

    [M49, anonymous source] [PNG]

    Image of M49 from an anonymous source

    [M49, HEAO-2 (Einstein) X-ray satellite] [PNG]

    HEAO-2 (Einstein) satellite image of the giant Virgo cluster elliptical M49 in the X-ray radiation.

  • Amateur images of M49

    Hartmut Frommert
    Christine Kronberg
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    Last Modification: 27 Jun 1999