Messier 87
M87
📋 A written introduction is coming — for now this page shows official values only.
Object
- Type (NASA)
- Elliptical Galaxy
- Distance from Earth
- 54,000,000 light-years
- Apparent magnitude
- 9.6 mag
- Apparent size
- 7 ′
- NASA description
- This enormous elliptical galaxy is home of several trillion stars some 15,000 globular star clusters.
Source:NASA Hubble (Messier/Caldwell catalogs) · checked 2026-11-02 ↗NASA HEASARC (Goddard Space Flight Center) · checked 2026-11-02 ↗
Related
Constellation
In everyday life
- Light from this object takes about 54,000,000 years to reach Earth — the light you see tonight left 54,000,000 years ago (official distance ÷ speed of light).
- At magnitude 9.6 it is fainter than the naked-eye limit (about 6) — you need binoculars or a telescope.
- It spans about 7′ of sky — about 1/4 of the full Moon's 31′.