Messier 60: Giant Elliptical Galaxy in Virgo

M60 is one of the giant elliptical galaxies of the Virgo Cluster and the easternmost of the cluster's Messier galaxies. A small spiral galaxy, NGC 4647, sits right next to it, making the pair a nice sight in a medium telescope.

What it is

M60 is a giant elliptical galaxy about 54 million light-years away. Its 7-arcminute size works out to about 110,000 light-years. With M49 and M87 it is one of the most massive galaxies in the cluster, with about 5,100 globular clusters in its halo and a supermassive black hole of billions of solar masses at its center. Its neighbor NGC 4647 is a spiral galaxy; the two appear to overlap slightly in photos, and Halton Arp included the pair in his catalog of peculiar galaxies. Whether they are truly interacting is still debated. A faint supernova, 2004W, was found in M60.

When to see it

M60 is a spring object. It is highest around midnight in early April and well placed in the evening from April into June. From about 40°N it climbs to about 62° in the south. It is also visible from most of the Southern Hemisphere, lower in the north during their autumn.

How to find it

Start at Vindemiatrix (Epsilon Virginis), the 3rd-magnitude star in the northeast of Virgo. M60 lies about 4½° due west of it. The 5th-magnitude star Rho Virginis is a good checkpoint: M60 is about 1½° north-northeast of Rho. Once you have M60, M59 is less than half a degree to the west-northwest and M58 about 1° beyond that, leading toward the rich region of Markarian's Chain.

What you will see

Under dark skies, binoculars may just show M60 as a faint fuzzy spot. A small telescope shows a bright, round glow with a brighter center, and M59 fits in the same low-power field. In a 100 mm scope on a good night you may glimpse NGC 4647 as a faint, larger, very dim patch touching M60's northwest side. A 200 mm telescope shows the companion clearly, a pale smudge next to the much brighter elliptical. M60 itself shows from the suburbs, but NGC 4647 needs dark skies.

History

Johann Gottfried Koehler discovered M60 together with M59 on April 11, 1779, while following the comet of that year. Barnaba Oriani found M60 the next day, and Charles Messier found it on April 15, along with M58 and M59. Messier noted that M60 was a little more distinct than the other two.