Messier 87

Galaxies
Messier Objects

Messier 87, also called Virgo A or NGC 4486, is a supergiant elliptical galaxy in Virgo containing several trillion stars. It lies about 53 million light years from Earth and is the second brightest galaxy in the northern Virgo Cluster. M87 has a large globular cluster population, an active supermassive black hole, and a relativistic plasma jet extending from its core. Its black hole was imaged with Event Horizon Telescope data collected in 2017.

Location: Constellation Virgo
Distance from Earth: About 16.4 million parsecs, or 53 million light years
Black hole image: Released on 10 April 2019

Sources and credits

Article: Messier 87 (English Wikipedia)
Wikidata: Q14041
Text: Card text is adapted from the English Wikipedia article by an automated summary. Wikipedia content is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for its contributors. CC BY-SA 4.0 · Article history and contributors
Illustration: By en:NASA, en:STScI, en:WikiSky. Public domain · File page on Wikimedia Commons
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