Nearby Galaxy Mysteriously Missing Parts

[mickw]

The giant galaxy Messier 87 has finally been sized up, but outer parts that should have been there are missing, scientists now find. The galaxy is smaller than expected.

Messier 87 belongs to the Virgo Cluster of galaxies, the nearest galaxy cluster to our own Milky Way. The relatively young cluster is located about 50 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo and contains many hundreds of galaxies.

A team of astronomers used the super-efficient FLAMES spectrograph at the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) Very Large Telescope in Chile to make ultra-precise measurements of a host of planetary nebulae in the outskirts of Messier 87. (Planetary nebulae are the final phase in the life of sun-like stars, when stars eject their outer layers into space.)

More:   http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/090525-mm-giant-messier-87.html