Galaxy M84, seen here in visible light, is one of the most prominent members of the Virgo Cluster. Originally considered a classic elliptical galaxy, M84 is now be- lieved to be lenticular (an elliptical core surrounded by a flattened disk of stars). The classification is signifi- cant: once thought to be almost completely lacking in the gas and dust clouds required to form new stars, as is typical of elliptical gal- axies, M84 has recently been found to contain a small but measurable number of these clouds. Still, the galaxyΓÇÖs approximately 500 billion stars appear quite old, implying that its glory days of intense star formation are long past.
M84 was first identified and named by the great eighteenth century French astronomer Charles
