established also on IRAS maps (see below). The M87 galaxy (l$\approx282^{\circ}$.5, b$\approx+74^{\circ}$.4) is normally taken as the center of the Virgo Cluster (VC) and one could imagine scenarios by which some sort of FIR-emitting matter could be distributed around it. For this reason, we decided to follow the FIR detection of the feature, which we call here “the Virgo Ring” (VR), and investigate it further.

The detection was made on the AASM, which have noise levels of 3 10$^{-3}$ MJy sr$^{-1}$ at 100$\mu$m, 0.6 MJy sr$^{-1}$ at 140$\mu$m, and 0.3 MJy sr$^{-1}$ at 240$\mu$m (Kashlinsky 1999). The ring is visible even by superficial inspection of these COBE/DIRBE gray scale maps. No traces of the ring can be seen on 60$\mu$m or shorter wavelength maps. To obtain detailed insight into the structure of the VR we produced isophotal maps at $\lambda$=100 and 240$\mu$m using the original 0$^{\circ}$.3 square pixels, which are shown as isophote plots in Figure 1. The 100$\mu$m map shows a region of depressed FIR flux where F$_{100}\approx$8.2 MJy sr$^{-1}$. This is surrounded by regions of enhanced FIR emission, which reach F$_{100}\approx$10 MJy sr$^{-1}$. The 240$\mu$m map indicates that the region of reduced FIR emission has F$_{240}\approx$3.7 MJy sr$^{-1}$ 