Messier 86 - Galaxy
Messier 86 is an elliptical galaxy in the constellation "Virgo", which is around 52 million light-years away from Earth. It was found together with Messier 84
in May 1779 by Johann Köhler. Its brightness is 8.9mag at an apparent size of 9x6' arcminutes. It can be observed even with a small telescope in the spring sky.
The Hubble Type E3 galaxy (today rather S0(3): lenticular) is located in the center of the Virgo Cluster and has the highest blue shift of all Messier objects. It
is moving towards us at a speed of v= 224km/s, in other words it is racing through the Virgo cluster at almost 1,700 km/s. This high speed causes the galaxy
to drag a tail of hot gas behind it, which emits X-rays.
The diameter of Messier 84 is a massive 140,000 light-years, making it an immensely large galaxy of its type. Its absolute magnitude is given as M = -22.4mag,
which corresponds to a luminosity of over 80 billion suns. At present, no supermassive black hole (SMBH) has been found in the center of Messier 86 - but it is
very likely that one will exist there and its mass will certainly be several billion solar masses due to the size of the galaxy.
M86 is surrounded by a halo of 3,800 globular clusters. There are also gas filaments in the direction of NGC 4438, suggesting that the two have interacted in the
past.
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Messier 86 is a really beautiful galaxy in my 20" f/3 telescope. :)
Thanks to its high surface brightness, the galaxy appears quite bright and large, as well as slightly oval. The brightness increases steadily towards the middle and
there is a bright, stellar nucleus in the center.
