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Virgo

Virgo is a congested constellation with dozens of known exoplanets and at least a dozen Messier objects. It is the largest constellation of the Zodiac and the second-largest constellation overall, behind Hydra.

In Greek mythology, Dike lived in the Golden Age of mankind. She was born a mortal and placed on Earth to rule over human justice. The Golden Age was marked by prosperity and peace, everlasting spring, and humans never knowing old age. When Zeus fulfilled the old prophecy and overthrew his father, this marked the beginning of the Silver Age, which was not as prosperous. Zeus introduced the four seasons and humans no longer honoured the gods as they had used to. Dike gave a speech to the entire race, warning them about the dangers of leaving behind the ideals of their predecessors and saying worse was yet to come. Then she flew to the mountains, turning her back on humans. When the Bronze and Iron Ages came and humans started warring among themselves, Dike left the Earth altogether, and flew to the heavens.

Mythology

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Location

Tied to fertility and agriculture, Virgo appears to stargazers in the Northern Hemisphere during the spring and summer months and to those in the Southern Hemisphere in autumn and winter.

  • Right Ascension: 13 hours

  • Declination: 0 degrees

  • Visible between latitudes 80 and minus 80 degrees

  • Best seen in May at 9 p.m.

Deep Sky Objects in Virgo

Messier 65 (M65, NGC 3623)

  • Messier 65 is an intermediate spiral galaxy in Leo. It has an apparent magnitude of 10.25 and is approximately 35 million light years distant.

  • The galaxy was discovered by Charles Messier in 1780. Messier 65, Messier 66 and NGC 3628 form the famous Leo Triplet galaxy group.

  • The galaxy does not contain much dust and gas and there isn’t much star formation occurring in it. Most of the stars in the galaxy are old.

  • M65’s disk appears slightly warped, which, along with some recent starburst activity, suggests that the galaxy is interacting with another object.

Messier 66 (M66, NGC 3627)

  • Messier 66 is an intermediate spiral galaxy in Leo.

  • Charles Messier discovered it in 1780.

  • The galaxy has a visual magnitude of 8.9 and is about 36 million light years distant.

  • M66 is approximately 95,000 light years across and notable for its dust lanes and bright star clusters.

  • It is part of the Leo Triplet, along with M65 and NGC 3628.

Messier 95 (M95, NGC 3351)

  • Messier 95 is a barred spiral galaxy in Leo.

  • It has a visual magnitude of 11.4 and is approximately 38 million light years distant.

  • The central region of M95 has a ring-shaped starburst region around the core with a diameter spanning about 2,000 light years.

  • The galaxy was discovered by the French astronomer Pierre Méchain in 1781 and Charles Messier subsequently included it in his catalogue four days later.

The Leo Ring

  • The Leo Ring is an enormous primordial cloud of hydrogen and helium found in orbit of two galaxies in the Leo constellation. The cloud was discovered by radio astronomers in 1983.

NGC 3607

  • NGC 3607 is a spiral galaxy in Leo. It has a visual magnitude of 10.8 and is a member of the Leo II Group (NGC 3607 Group) of galaxies.

NGC 3593

  • NGC 3593 is a spiral galaxy in Leo. It has an apparent magnitude of 12.6.

NGC 3384

  • NGC 3384 is an elliptical galaxy, approximately 35.1 million light years distant. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1784.

  • The stars located in the galaxy’s central region are very old. More than 80% of them are Population II stars, more than a billion years old.

  • NGC 3384 belongs to the M96 Group (Leo I Group) of galaxies.

NGC 3842

  • NGC 3842 is an elliptical galaxy, notable for having one of the largest black holes known. The black hole at the centre of the galaxy is believed to have a mass of 9.7 billion solar masses.

  • The galaxy has an apparent magnitude of 12.8 and is approximately 331 million light years distant from Earth.

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