Virgo A
A giant elliptical galaxy at the heart of the Virgo Cluster, whose central black hole was the first ever imaged.
Tonight from
Rise, highest point and set are worked out on your device for the place above.
What it is
- Kind of object
- Galaxy
- Distance
- 53.5 million light years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 8.6, a sight for a small telescope
- Size in the sky
- About a quarter of the width of the full Moon
- Constellation
- Virgo
- Catalogue
- M 87, NGC 4486
Figures from OpenNGC, CC BY-SA 4.0; the SEDS Messier catalogue, via Wikipedia’s table of Messier objects, CC BY-SA 4.0. All sources
Near it in the sky
- DenebolaA white main-sequence star in Leo, about a fist away.
- Black Eye GalaxyA galaxy in Coma Berenices, about a fist away.
- Coma Star ClusterAn open cluster in Coma Berenices, about a fist away.
- M 3A globular cluster in Canes Venatici, about a hand span away.
- Sombrero GalaxyA galaxy in Virgo, about a hand span away.