Space Image of the Day Gallery (November 2015)

Messier 60 and NGC 4647

Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope/Coelum

Monday, Nov. 30, 2015: Elliptical galaxy Messier 60, stretching 200,000 light-years across and measuring about one trillion times the mass of the sun, represents the third brightest galaxy in the Virgo cluster of galaxies. A black hole 4.5 billion times the mass of the sun lies at the center of this galaxy. Interacting neighbor galaxy NGC 4647 also appears in this image, and together the two galaxies make up Arp 116.

— Tom Chao

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Tom Chao
Tom Chao has contributed to SPACE.com as a producer and writer since 2000. As a writer and editor, he has worked for the Voyager Company, Time Inc. New Media, HarperCollins and Worth Publishers. He has a bachelor’s degree in Cinema Production from the University of Southern California, and a master’s degree from NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Tom on Google+.