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Messier 85
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elliptical or lenticular galaxy in the constellation Coma Berenices
Messier 85 is a galaxy located in the constellation Coma Berenices that has either an elliptical or lenticular shape, meaning it appears as a smooth, featureless ball or as a flattened disk-like structure. Astronomers study galaxies like this one to understand the diversity of galaxy types and structures in our universe.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Key facts
- Constellation
- Coma Berenices
- Right ascension
- 12 25 24.0528
- Declination
- +18 ° 11 ′ 27.888 ″
- Redshift
- 729 ± 2 km / s
- Distance
- 60 ± 4 Mly (18.5 ± 1.2 Mpc )
- Type
- SA(s)0 pec /E 2
- Size
- 36.99 kiloparsecs (120,600 light-years ) , (diameter; 2MASS total aperture )
- Apparent size v
- 7′.1 × 5′.5
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- elliptical galaxy
- Constellation
- Coma Berenices
- Distance from Earth
- 19.08
- Radius
- 62500
- Image
- Messier 85 Hubble WikiSky.jpg
Show 12 more facts
- Commons category
- Messier 85
- catalog code
- LEDA 40515
- galaxy morphological type
- SA(s)0+ pec
- Commons gallery
- Messier 85
- time of discovery or invention
- 1781-03-04
- discoverer or inventor
- Pierre Méchain
- apparent magnitude
- 6.145
- redshift
- 0.002535
- radial velocity
- 769
- right ascension
- 186.3502208
- declination
- 18.1910806
- epoch
- J2000.0
via Wikidata · CC0
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Encyclopedic overview
Messier 85 (also known as M85 or NGC 4382 or PGC 40515 or ISD 0135852) is a lenticular galaxy, or elliptical galaxy for other authors, in the Coma Berenices constellation. It is 60 million light-years away, and has a diameter of about 36.99 kiloparsecs (120,600 light-years) across.
Pierre Méchain discovered M85 in 1781. It is within the outskirts of the Virgo Cluster, and is relatively isolated.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Messier 85” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.