Messier 87

Messier 87 (commonly known as M87) is a supergiant elliptical galaxy located somewhere around the centre in the constellation of Virgo. It is in the largest cluster in the Local Supercluster. M87 was discovered in 1781 by Charles Messier, a French astronomer. However, it was only  identified as a member of the Virgo Supercluster by Edwin Hubble in 1931. One of the 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 (4,900 light-years), traveling at a relativistic speed. It is one of the brightest radio sources in the sky and a popular target for both amateur and professional astronomers. The galaxy is a strong source of multiwavelength radiation, particularly radio waves.
== Supermassive black hole M87# ==
The core of the galaxy contains a supermassive black hole (SMBH), designated M87*, whose mass is billions of times that of the Earth's Sun; therefore its mass is 6.5 million solar mass, close to what astronomers expected based on the galaxy's properties. The image of the black hole was released in April 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope collaboration released measurements of the black hole's mass as slightly overestimated. This is one of the highest-known masses for such an object. A rotating disk of ionized gas surrounds the black hole, and is roughly perpendicular to the relativistic jet. The Schwarzschild radius of the black hole is 5.9×10−4 parsecs (1.9×10−3 light-years), which is around 120 times the Earth–Sun distance (120 AU).
Category:Galaxies
Category:Black holes
Category:Virgo constellation