Hubble Image of Elliptical Galaxy with 200 Billion Stars

This orb of blurry light is a giant elliptical galaxy filled with an incredible 200 billion stars. Unlike spiral galaxies, which have a well-defined structure and picturesque spiral arms, elliptical galaxies seem rather smooth and featureless. This is probably why this galaxy, named Messier 49, was discovered by French astronomer Charles Messier in 1771. At a distance of 56 million light-years and measuring 157,000 light-years, M49 was the first member of the Virgo galaxy group to discover, and it is brighter than any other galaxy at its distance or closer.

Elliptical galaxies tend to contain a greater proportion of older stars than spiral galaxies and also lack young blue stars. Messier 49 itself is very yellow, which indicates that the stars it contains are generally older and more red than the Sun. In fact, the last major episode of star formation dates back to about six billion years ago, even before the birth of the Sun!

Messier 49 is also rich in globular clusters; it hosts about 6000, a number that exceeds 150 found in and around the Milky Way. On average, these clusters are 10 billion years old. Messier 49 is also known to host a supermassive black hole in its center with the mass of more than 500 million suns, identifiable by the X-rays coming out of the heart of the galaxy (this Hubble image including infrared observations, these X-rays are not visible here).

Credit: ESA / Hubble & NASA, Blakenslee J., P. Cote et al.