M89 - NGC 4552

Messier 89 (NGC 4552) is an elliptical galaxy located approximately 50 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo. It was discovered by Charles Messier in 1781 and is a member of the Virgo Cluster. M89 is classified as an E0 elliptical galaxy, meaning it appears perfectly circular in projection, making it one of the roundest galaxies known. This near-perfect circular appearance could mean that M89 is intrinsically spherical, or that we happen to view a slightly elongated galaxy along its long axis. The galaxy has a visual magnitude of about 9.8 and a physical diameter of approximately 80,000 light-years. M89 possesses several interesting features despite its smooth, featureless appearance. Deep imaging has revealed faint outer shells and a jet-like structure extending from the nucleus, both suggesting past merger activity. The galaxy also has an unusually extended envelope of stars and gas that reaches about 150,000 light-years from the center, far beyond the bright inner regions. At its center, M89 harbors a supermassive black hole and shows evidence of a weak active nucleus with a small jet detectable in radio and X-ray observations. The galaxy is surrounded by a rich system of globular clusters. In Hubble Space Telescope images, a disk of gas and dust about 700 light-years across has been detected around the nucleus, an unusual feature for an elliptical galaxy. In amateur telescopes, M89 appears as a small, round, uniformly bright patch of light. It is one of the less visually distinctive Virgo Cluster galaxies and is sometimes confused with nearby M90 or other cluster members. A 4-inch telescope shows the basic glow, while larger instruments reveal its extent and the gradual brightness falloff from center to edge.

M89 spans approximately 80,000 light-years in diameter with an extended halo reaching 150,000 light-years, located about 50 million light-years from Earth.