M87 (Virgo A)

M87 (Virgo A) — galaxy, shown live in Cosmoscope, a real-time 3D map of the universe.

The monster at the heart of the Virgo Cluster — a giant elliptical swarming with trillions of stars and 12,000 globular clusters, firing a 5,000-light-year jet from the first black hole humanity ever imaged.

Type
Giant elliptical (E0/cD)
Distance
53 million light-years
Core
A 6.5-billion-solar-mass black hole
Famous for
First black hole ever photographed (2019)

Seeing M87 (Virgo A) in real time

M87 (Virgo A) is placed at its true position on the sky and at its real measured distance, not as a flat backdrop. Fly out from the Sun in the live 3D view and watch it change from a point of light into structure as you approach, with the scale bar showing just how far out you have travelled.

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Interactive universe
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