Messier Monday: The Biggest One of them All, M87 (Synopsis)

“I recognize my limits, but when I look around I realise I am not living, exactly, in a world of giants.” -Giulio Andreotti

There are a huge number of deep-sky objects visible from Earth, and every Monday -- with the Messier Monday series -- I've made it my goal to tell you about one of them in spectacular fashion.

Image credit: Tenho Tuomi of Tuomi Observatory, via http://www.lex.sk.ca/astro/messier/index.html.

But only one can be the largest of them all. For today's Messier Monday, meet our supercluster's largest, most gigantic galaxy: Messier 87!

Image credit: John C. Smith of Hidden Loft, via http://www.hiddenloft.com/M/M87.htm.

Go and read the whole story of the largest galaxy in our local Universe!