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M87

Messier 87
Elliptical Galaxy

Right Ascension	12h 30m 49s	Best Seen	4/1-8/1
Declination	12° 23' 28"	Magnitude	8.6
		Constellation	Virgo

	Actual	Compared to Milky Way
Distance	~ 60 million ly	--
Actual Brightness	--	--
Diameter	120 thousand ly	1.2
Mass	~3 trillion suns	--
Galactic Type	E1	--

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What To Look For Through The Telescope

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1. Recommended eyepiece: 40mm or 80 mm.

2. 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.

3. The view through the telescope will not look like photographs 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.

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M87 Information

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1. This is a giant elliptical galaxy, and looks nearly spherical.

2. With long exposure photographs, M87 is seen to extend out even further:
   its diameter could be more than half a million light years².
   Plus, with long exposures, M87 is somewhat elongated, no longer spherical.

3. A giant jet extends from M87 about 5,000 to 8,000 light years³.

4. A supermassive black hole⁴, with a mass of 3 billion suns, is at the center of M87.

5. M87 has perhaps as many as 15,000 globular clusters⁵. The Milky Way has about 150.

6. This galaxy is the 5th strongest source of radio emission in the sky⁶. (Called Virgo A or 3C 274).

Home > Galaxies > Elliptical > M87 > References	top

References

Item	Updated	Notes
Coordinates	2002-08-14	just “tweaked” a bit
Magnitude	2002-08-14	http://www.seds.org/messier/m/m087.html
Distance	2002-08-14>	http://www.seds.org/messier/m/m087.html
Actual Brightness	--
Diameter	--
Mass	2002-08-14	http://www.seds.org/messier/m/m087.html
Galactic Type	--
Other	2002-08-14	2, 3, 5: http://www.seds.org/messier/m/m087.html 3: GREAT PIC at http://www.seds.org/messier/more/m087_jet.html 4: GREAT PIC at http://hubblesite.org/discoveries/10th/photos/slide32.shtml 5: previous: "about 7,500 globular clusters" – BUT the same seds site as above says modern estimates are around 15,000 6: left alone, no changes (but couldn’t find info to support 5th brightest radio source)