101 Must-See Cosmic Objects: M87

M87 is yet another Messier elliptical galaxy in the Virgo Cluster, 55 million light-years distant and some 120,000 light-years across. It lies about 3½° northwest of Rho Virginis. But M87 outdoes M84 and M86 in sheer mass: It has least a trillion stars totaling a mass of 2.7 trillion Suns. That makes it one of largest, most massive, and most luminous galaxies in our local universe.

Charles Messier discovered M87 on March 18, 1781 — the same night he found M84 and M86 — a