M 87 is remarkable for a few reasons. First is its
massive size. This elliptical giant is the dominant galaxy
in the Virgo Cluster. The brigher portion (about what you
can see in this image) is 120,000 light years across, larger
than the Milky Way. Dimmer areas further out increase the
diameter to nearly 1 million light years. The second remarkable
thing about M 87 is the large number of globular clusters which
swarm around it -- around 12,000 of them (compared to the 150
or 200 that orbit the Milky Way. Finally, and perhaps most remarkable,
there is a jet of subatomic particles being expelled
from it at nearly the speed of light. You can see this jet on the
lower left side of the galaxy in this image (be sure to look at the
"original" size). This jet, reaching out
thousands of light years, is caused by the wildly spinning
disk of material surrounding a supermassive black hole at the
center of M 87. This black hole contains the material
of 3 billion suns crammed into an area about the size of our solar
system.

Image data:
Camera: SBIG STL-11000
Exposure: Lum 260 minutes; RGB 200 minutes (7 hours 40 minutes)
Telescope: 12.5" Hyperion