Messier 87

Giant elliptical galaxy

From the Sun

53.5 million light-years

Picture: Digitized Sky Survey 2 (STScI/AURA, Palomar/Caltech, UKSTU/AAO), via CDS hips2fits

What it is

One of the most massive galaxies nearby, at the heart of the Virgo Cluster, with a jet 5,000 light-years long coming out of its core.

The picture hangs at that distance facing Earth, as large as it is on the sky; how deep the object is cannot be seen, so it is flat.

The picture

Taken by: Digitized Sky Survey
Picture spans: about 280,000 ly
From the Sun: 53.5 million light-years
RA / Dec: 187.71° / 12.39°
Credit: Digitized Sky Survey 2 (STScI/AURA, Palomar/Caltech, UKSTU/AAO), via CDS hips2fits

Messier 87

Messier 87 is a supergiant elliptical galaxy in the constellation Virgo that contains several trillion stars. One of the largest and most massive galaxies in the local universe, it has a large population of globular clusters—about 15,000 compared with the 150–200 orbiting the Milky Way—and a jet of energetic plasma that originates at the core and extends at least 1,500 parsecs, traveling at a relativistic speed.

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