Proceedings of a workshop held at Ringberg Castle, Tegernsee, Germany, 15-19 September 1997 / Hermann-Josef Röser, Klaus Meisenheimer, eds. Berlin ; New York : Springer, 1999.

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ABSTRACT. Our current understanding of the structure and dynamics of the Virgo cluster is reviewed. Special emphasis is given to a possible connection between the activity of M87 and the cluster as a whole. The Virgo cluster is an aggregate of at least three separate subclusters, centered on M87, M86, and M49. The dominant M87 subclump, with a mass of a few 10¹⁴ M, is outweighing the other two subclumps by an order of magnitude. There is evidence, from the kinematics of dwarf galaxies and the structure of the X-ray gas, that the M86 subclump is falling into the M87 subclump from the back with a relative velocity of 1500 km s^-1. M87 and M86 seem to be embedded in a common, cocoon-like swarm of dwarf ellipticals. The orientation of this cocoon, or simply the line connecting M87 and M86, is coinciding with the (projected) direction of the jet of M87. A possible explanation for this apparent coherence between structures on the pc scale of the center of M87 and the Mpc scale of the Virgo cluster is discussed.

Table of Contents

• INTRODUCTION
• GLOBAL STRUCTURE
• GALAXY CONTENTS AND KINEMATICS
• CLUSTER DEPTH AND ENVIRONMENT
• THE M87 SUBCLUMP
• THE M87 / M86 SUBCLUMP INTERACTION ...AND THE JET
• CONCLUDING REMARKS
• REFERENCES