Messier 87 is a supergiant elliptical galaxy in Virgo. It lies at the heart of the Virgo supercluster of galaxies at a distance of 60 million light-years away.

Subtending an apparent angle of 8.30 x 6.6 arcminutes, M87 appears to have a diameter of 120,000 light-years in space. However, on really deep exposures, the galaxy may extend to more than 30 arcminutes, which would be more than 500,000 to 1,000,000 light-years in true size.

Because M87 is an elliptical galaxy, its volume is much larger than a spiral galaxy like our own Milky Way. It is estimated that M87 contains one trillion stars with a total mass of several trillion solar masses, making it one of the most massive galaxies known. The total mass of M87 may be as much as 200 times that of our Milky Way Galaxy.

M87's Plasma Jet

M87 also contains a spectacular and unique plasma jet, which can be seen at the 2 o'clock position emanating from the center of the galaxy in the image at left comprised of a series of shorter exposures so the core of the galaxy is not overexposed.

This jet is made of gas ejected from the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy, and extends some 7,000 to 8,000 light-years from the core. The jet was discovered by H. D. Curtis in 1918. The active center of M87 is sometimes called the "Smoking Gun."

The gigantic black hole at the center of M87's active galactic nucleus is believed to contain 2 to 3 billion solar masses in a diameter the size of our solar system. The strong radio source Virgo A is also associated with M87.

Elliptical galaxies are believed to form from the mergers between smaller galaxies. Once a galaxy like this gets large enough, it will also cannibalize neighboring galaxies, adding to its size and mass.

M87 is also surrounded by a remarkable halo of up to 13,000 globular clusters. This is compared to the Milky Way's halo of 157 globular clusters.

M87 is located at the center of the Virgo Cluster, which contains 2,000 galaxies. This galaxy cluster is part of the Virgo-Coma supercluster of galaxies which contains more than 1 million galaxies total. Our Milky Way is part of the Local Group of galaxies, which in turn is also part of the Virgo-Coma supercluster, although it is an outlying member.

M87 was discovered by Charles Messier in 1781.

North is to the top in the above image.

Messier 87 Catalogs: M87, NGC 4486, 3C 274 Common Name: Virgo A Object Type: cD0-1 pec Galaxy Magnitude: 8.6v Size: 8.3' x 6.6' Constellation: Virgo Image Field Centered At: RA: 12h 30m 49s Dec: +12° 23' 25"