Messier 88

This galaxy's core holds supermassive black hole roughly 100 million times more massive than our Sun.

Distance

47 million light-years

Apparent Magnitude

9.5

constellation

Coma Berenices

object type

Spiral Galaxy

M88
Located approximately 47 million light-years away, M88 is a spiral galaxy with well-defined and symmetrical arms.
NASA, ESA, and P. Erwin (Max-Planck-Institut fur extraterrestrische Physik); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)

Located approximately 47 million light-years away, M88 is a spiral galaxy with well-defined and symmetrical arms. Although it is a member of the Virgo cluster of galaxies, it appears in the neighboring constellation of Coma Berenices.

Hubble image of M88
This Hubble observation was taken with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 using a single visible-light filter. With Hubble, observations in multiple filters are needed to produce color images, so this image of nearly half the galaxy is in black and white.
NASA, ESA, STScI, and M. Stiavelli (STScI)

M88 contains an active galactic nucleus, meaning the central region of the galaxy is more luminous than the rest of the galaxy. At the galaxy’s core resides a supermassive black hole estimated to be 100 million times more massive than our Sun. M88 contains around 400 billion stars and is traveling away from our galaxy.

Charles Messier discovered M88 in 1781 on the same night that he discovered eight other Messier objects. As one of the brighter Messier galaxies, it can be observed with a pair of large binoculars from a dark location under good viewing conditions. Smaller telescopes will reveal an elongated object with a brighter core, while larger telescopes will unveil further details, such as a more defined core. M88 has a magnitude of 9.5 and is best observed in May.

This Hubble observation of the core of M88 combines visible and infrared observations obtained by the Wide Field Camera 3, and captures swirling bands of dark dust as well as clusters of stars. It was taken as part of a study of galactic bulges ― the central group of stars surrounding a spiral galaxy’s core ― focusing on the process of galaxy evolution and the growth of supermassive back holes.

M88 inset 01
This ground-based image shows the entirety of galaxy M88 while the white outline indicates the section captured by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3).
Ground-based image: NOIRLab/NSF/AURA; WFC3 image: NASA, ESA, and P. Erwin (Max-Planck-Institut fur extraterrestrische Physik); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)
star chart showing location in night sky of M88
This star chart for M88 represents the view from mid-northern latitudes for the given month and time.
Image courtesy of Stellarium

Explore Hubble's Messier Catalog

The following pages contain some of Hubble’s best images of Messier objects.

Bright green, orange, and yellow tendrils intertwined within this egg shaped nebula.

Messier 1 (The Crab Nebula)

Better known as the Crab Nebula, Charles Messier originally mistook Messier 1 for Halley’s Comet, which inspired him to create…

A Hubble image of a ball of thousands of stars

Messier 2

Hubble's image of Messier 2 is comprised of visible and infrared wavelengths of light.

Hubble view of M3 - a ball of thousands of stars.

Messier 3

Messier 3 holds more than 500,000 stars.