Messier 87

High school (ages 12+)
Space & Astronomy

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/messier-87

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. How heavy is Messier 87?Estimated to contain several trillion stars
2. How long is Messier 87?Extends at least 1,500 parsecs (4,900 light-years)
3. What is the galaxy type?Supergiant elliptical galaxy (E0-E2)
4. What is the distance?Approximately 16.4 megaparsecs (53 million light-years)
5. What is Messier 87 and why is it special?Messier 87 is a gigantic elliptical galaxy that has trillions of stars and is one of the brightest galaxies in the nearby universe. It is part of the Virgo Cluster and has a huge number of globular clusters, about 15,000, which shows how old and massive it is.
6. Why does Messier 87 have a jet and how fast does it go?The jet comes from the supermassive black hole at the galaxy’s center and shoots out plasma at speeds almost equal to the speed of light. The jet stretches about 4,900 light‑years across, making it one of the brightest radio sources we can see.

Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN): A compact region at the center of a galaxy that is exceptionally luminous across the electromagnetic spectrum.
Event Horizon Telescope (EHT): A global network of radio telescopes that work together to observe astronomical objects with unprecedented detail.
Globular Cluster: A spherical collection of hundreds of thousands to millions of stars, orbiting a galaxy's core.
Relativistic Jet: A powerful outflow of plasma ejected from the vicinity of a black hole or neutron star at speeds approaching the speed of light.