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Messier 84

This elliptical is one of the many galaxies that make up the Virgo Cluster.

Distance

60 million light-years

Apparent Magnitude

10.1

constellation

Virgo

object type

Elliptical Galaxy

M84 fills most of the right side of the image. The galaxy appears as a bright,-white, hazy ball against a black background dotted with other galaxies. The galaxy's core is bright-white, transitioning to hazy, diffuse white toward the galaxy's outer edges. Bands of rusty-red dust stretch across the galaxy's core.
M84 glows softly with the light of mostly older stars, typical of elliptical galaxies. The galaxy’s bright central core -- home to a supermassive black hole -- and its warped dust lanes are distinctive even with this wider frame of view.
NASA, ESA, P. Cote (National Research Council of Canada); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)

Discovered by Charles Messier in 1781, M84 is an elliptical galaxy located 60 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo. It is one of over a thousand galaxies that make up the Virgo cluster. With an apparent magnitude of 10.1, the galaxy can be spotted using a moderately sized telescope most easily during May.

A hazy ball of white light fills the image. The ball is brighter toward the center of the image, becoming more diffuse toward the edges of the image. Bands of rusty-brown dust stretch across the core.
Dark dust lanes streak across the core of elliptical galaxy M84 in this Hubble image.
NASA, ESA, A. Capetti (Osservatorio Astronomico di Torino), P. Cote (National Research Council of Canada), and J. Bregman (University of Michigan); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)

The image above of M84 combines observations taken by Hubble at visible, infrared, and ultraviolet wavelengths. Although the image does not show the entire galaxy, it highlights one of M84’s most fascinating features: its central region. Previous Hubble observations of M84 taken with a spectrograph have indicated that the galaxy hosts a supermassive black hole at its core.

M84 is also notable for being the site of two stellar explosions called supernovas, one discovered in 1957 and the other in 1991.

Two views of the elliptical galaxy M84. One larger view fills the upper-right side of the image. The galaxy appears as a bright,-white, hazy ball against a black background. A box around its core indicates the location of another image situated in the lower-left part of the image. That image holds a hazy ball of white light that fills the image frame. The ball is brighter toward the center of the image, becoming more diffuse toward the edges of the image. Bands of rusty-brown dust stretch across the core.
A box in the Hubble Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) image of M84 (upper right) pinpoints the location of Hubble’s ACS and Wide Field Camera 3 view within the wider view of the elliptical galaxy.
ACS Image: NASA, ESA, Credit: NASA, ESA, P. Cote (National Research Council of Canada); Inset: A. Capetti (Osservatorio Astronomico di Torino), P. Cote (National Research Council of Canada), and J. Bregman (University of Michigan); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)
core of M84 (left) and spectrograph plot (right)
The Hubble image on the left shows the bright core of M84 surrounded by a dark band of gas and dust. The plot on the right was generated by passing light from the core of the galaxy (bordered by the blue rectangle in the left image) through a Hubble spectrograph. Stars and glowing gases near the core of M84 are circling the galaxy’s central black hole at 880,000 miles per hour, so they appear to be moving rapidly toward Earth on the left half of the spectrum (colored blue) and receding on the right half (colored red).
Gary Bower, Richard Green (NOAO), the STIS Instrument Definition Team and NASA

For more information about Hubble’s observations of M84, see:

locator star chart for M84
This star chart for M84 represents the view from mid-northern latitudes for the given month and time.
Image courtesy of Stellarium

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