Messier 87
M87 · NGC 4486
A giant elliptical at the heart of the Virgo Cluster, home to the first black hole ever photographed and a jet thousands of light-years long.
Virgo A is an elliptical galaxy in the constellation Virgo about 54 million ly from Earth. It spans roughly 120,000 ly, about the width of our Milky Way. The light reaching us tonight left it about 54 million years ago.
Elliptical
type · E
54 million ly
from Earth · measured
120k ly
across
9.0
apparent magnitude
Because its light is 54 million ly from home, you are seeing Virgo A as it looked roughly 54 million years ago. The photons left before that much of history had passed, and are only now reaching us.
At the centre
Messier 87* (M87*)
A supermassive black hole of 6.5 billion ☉.
Nearest galaxies
IC 3499Lenticular1.6 million ly
apartNGC 4436Lenticular1.7 million ly
apartNGC 4564Elliptical1.7 million ly
apartNGC 4429Lenticular1.7 million ly
apartNGC 4551Elliptical1.8 million ly
apartIC 3583Irregular2.0 million ly
apart
Worlds in the same direction on the sky→apartNGC 4436Lenticular1.7 million ly
apartNGC 4564Elliptical1.7 million ly
apartNGC 4429Lenticular1.7 million ly
apartNGC 4551Elliptical1.8 million ly
apartIC 3583Irregular2.0 million ly
apart
Source: structural data (position, morphology, brightness, redshift) from OpenNGC (CC BY-SA). Distance from published measurements.