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M84
Messier 84
Elliptical Galaxy
| Right Ascension | 12h 25m 05s | Best Seen | 4/1-8/1 |
| Declination | 12° 53' 13" | Magnitude | 9.3 |
| Constellation | Virgo | ||
Actual |
Compared to Milky Way |
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| Distance | ~ 60 million ly | -- |
| Actual Brightness | -- | -- |
| Diameter | -- | -- |
| Mass | -- | -- |
| Galactic Type | E1? S0? | -- |
What To Look For Through The Telescope
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Recommended eyepiece: 40mm or 80 mm.
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When people look through the telescope they should see a fuzzy patch of light. This is the galaxy. If they are having trouble seeing it, have them look at a star near the edge of the field, then look back to the center out of the corner of their eye.
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The view through the telescope will not look like the photographs of galaxies they may have seen. A photograph of a galaxy may have an exposure of many hours. This long exposure brings out the galaxy’s details. Our eyes allow light to collect for only about 1/30 of a second before they refresh themselves and start over again.
M84 Information
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M84 is nearly spherical.
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A supermassive black hole resides in the center of M84.
a. The black hole’s signature was detected by the Hubble Space Telescope’s Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS).
b. The black hole contains at least 300 million solar masses.
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Astronomers aren’t completely certain what type of galaxy M84 is.
a. Some think M84 is an elliptical galaxy: shaped like an ellipse without much interstellar matter.
b. Some think M84 is a lenticular galaxy: disk galaxies without any obvious structure to their disks.
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References
| Item | Updated | Notes |
| Coordinates | 2002-08-12 | just “tweaked” a bit |
| Distance | -- | |
| Actual Brightness | 2002-08-12 | can find no info |
| Diameter | 2002-08-14 | previous: 85 thousand ly – BUT can find no info at all to support this. In fact, can’t find any site that gives any diameter, except one site which said 25 million ly... but don’t know how reliable the site is |
| Mass | previous: 500 million suns – BUT can find no info at all |
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| Galactic Type | 2002-08-12 | See item 3. Type of Galaxy – source: http://www.seds.org/messier/m/m084.html |
| Other Information | 2002-08-14 | item 2: black hole – Resources include 1. http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/PR/97/12/PR.html (**GREAT picture at http://www.seds.org/messier/more/m084_hst.html) 2. Item 3: see Galactic Type |