M87

Virgo A is a supergiant elliptical galaxy at the heart of the Virgo Cluster, about 53 million light-years from Earth. It is one of the most massive galaxies in the local universe, containing several trillion stars and spanning about 240,000 light-years. M87 harbors a supermassive black hole of 6.5 billion solar masses — the first black hole ever directly imaged, by the Event Horizon Telescope in 2019.

Located about 1.5 degrees northwest of the midpoint between Epsilon Virginis (Vindemiatrix) and Beta Leonis (Denebola). In a telescope it appears as a large, bright, round glow with a blazing core. The famous relativistic jet (discovered by Heber Curtis in 1918) extends from the nucleus and is visible in 8-inch or larger telescopes under excellent conditions as a faint spike extending from the core. Best observed from March through June.

Discovered by Charles Messier on March 18, 1781. In 1918, Heber Curtis noticed a 'curious straight ray' extending from the nucleus — this was the relativistic jet, one of the most dramatic features in extragalactic astronomy. In April 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope produced the first-ever image of a black hole's shadow, using M87's central supermassive black hole.