M87 - VIRGO A

Messier 87 (NGC 4486), also known as Virgo A, is a supergiant elliptical galaxy located approximately 53 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo. It is the dominant galaxy at the center of the Virgo Cluster and one of the most massive galaxies in the nearby universe. M87 was discovered by Charles Messier in 1781 and has since become one of the most intensively studied galaxies in astronomy. The galaxy has an estimated diameter of approximately 240,000 light-years and contains several trillion stars along with an extraordinary population of roughly 15,000 globular clusters, compared to the Milky Way's approximately 150. At its center lies a supermassive black hole with a mass of about 6.5 billion solar masses, which became the first black hole ever directly imaged when the Event Horizon Telescope collaboration released its historic image in April 2019. This black hole powers a powerful relativistic jet of plasma that extends at least 5,000 light-years from the nucleus and is visible even in amateur telescopes as a faint spike emanating from the bright core. The jet was first observed by Heber Curtis in 1918 and has since been studied across the electromagnetic spectrum. M87 is also a powerful radio source (Virgo A or 3C 274) and an intense X-ray emitter, with hot gas filling its enormous gravitational well. The galaxy's massive gravitational field has been observed to gravitationally lens background objects. For amateur astronomers, M87 appears as a large, bright, round glow with a luminous core. The famous jet requires at least a 10-inch telescope and excellent conditions to glimpse visually.

M87 spans approximately 240,000 light-years in diameter, contains several trillion stars and 15,000 globular clusters, with a 6.5 billion solar mass central black hole.