Messier 87 (also known as Virgo A or NGC 4486, generally abbreviated to M87) is a supergiant elliptical galaxy in the constellation Virgo that contains several trillion stars.

Mar 28, 2025 · The elliptical galaxy M87 is the home of several trillion stars, a supermassive black hole and a family of roughly 15,000 globular star clusters. For comparison, our Milky Way galaxy contains only a few hundred billion stars and about 150 globular clusters.

Apr 25, 2019 · The galaxy M87, imaged here by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, is home to a supermassive black hole that spews two jets of material out into space at nearly the speed of light. The inset shows a close-up view of the shockwaves created by the two jets.

Apr 1, 2025 · M87, giant elliptical galaxy in the constellation Virgo whose nucleus contains a black hole, the first ever to be directly imaged. M87 is the most powerful known source of radio energy among the thousands of galactic systems constituting the so-called Virgo Cluster.

Apr 10, 2019 · The supermassive black hole imaged by the EHT is located in the center of the elliptical galaxy M87, located about 55 million light years from Earth. This image was captured by FORS2 on ESO's Very Large Telescope.

Sep 26, 2024 · A Hubble Space Telescope image of the giant galaxy M87 shows a 3,000-light-year-long jet of plasma blasting from the galaxy's 6.5-billion-solar-mass central black hole. The blowtorch-like jet seems to cause stars to erupt along its trajectory.

The massive galaxy M87 is the most spectacular example of an elliptical galaxy we can see from Earth. The most fascinating feature of this galaxy is its jet, which is visible in optical light as well as x-rays and radio emissions.

Feb 1, 2025 · What is the M87 Black Hole? Messier 87 (M87), a supergiant elliptical galaxy in Virgo, is located 53.5 million light-years away. It houses the first-ever imaged supermassive black hole (6.5...

Apr 21, 2021 · In April 2019, scientists released the first image of a black hole in the galaxy M87 using the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). This supermassive black hole weighs 6.5 billion times the mass of the Sun and is located at the center of M87, about 55 million light-years from Earth.

Jan 18, 2024 · In 2017, the EHT took the first image of a black hole. This object, M87*, is the beating heart of the giant elliptical galaxy Messier 87 and lives 55 million light years away from Earth. The image of the black hole revealed a bright circular ring, brighter in …