M87, AlBroxton

M87

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Description

Messier 87 (also known as M87, Virgo A or NGC 4486) is a supergiant elliptical galaxy. It was discovered in 1781 by French astronomer Charles Messier. The second brightest galaxy within the northern Virgo Cluster, it is located about 53.5 million light years away from Earth. Unlike a disk-shaped spiral galaxy, Messier 87 has no distinctive dust lanes and it has an ellipsoidal shape. At the core is a super massive black hole. This galaxy is also a member of the famous Virgo cluster of galaxies. It is located about 60 million light-years from Earth and has a diameter of around 120,000 light-years. M87 lies within the heart of the Virgo cluster. It is well known for huge system of globular clusters that can be easily seen on long exposure photographs. This galaxy also features an unusual jet of gaseous material that extends out thousands of light-years. A supernova explosion occurred in this galaxy in 1919 but was not discovered until 1922 when it discovered on photographs of the galaxy.

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Revisions

  • M87, AlBroxton
    Original
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  • Final
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M87, AlBroxton

In these collections

Allen Broxton