Messier 85: Lenticular Galaxy in Coma Berenices

M85 is the northernmost of the Messier galaxies in the Virgo Cluster, sitting just across the border in Coma Berenices. It is one of the brighter galaxies in the area and has the advantage of a handy guide star close by.

What it is

M85 is a lenticular galaxy, a disk galaxy with a big central bulge and no clear spiral arms. It lies about 60 million light-years away, and its visible glow spans roughly 120,000 light-years. Its stars are mostly old, and it holds little of the gas needed to form new ones, though studies of its center suggest it went through a burst of star formation more recently than most galaxies of its kind.

M85 is on the northern outskirts of the Virgo Cluster, about 5° north of the cluster core around M84, M86 and M87. A small barred spiral, NGC 4394, sits just a few arcminutes to its east and may be interacting with it.

When to see it

From about 40°N, M85 is highest around midnight in early April and around 10 p.m. standard time (11 p.m. daylight time) in early May, when it climbs to about 68° above the southern horizon. From the Southern Hemisphere it stays fairly low in the north but is still visible in autumn evenings from most inhabited latitudes.

How to find it

Look for 11 Comae Berenices, a 5th-magnitude star you can find about 8° east-northeast of Denebola, the star at the tail of Leo. M85 lies about 1.2° east-northeast of 11 Comae, close enough that both fit in a finder or a low-power eyepiece. Alternatively, find M84 and M86 first (midway between Denebola and Vindemiatrix) and move about 5° due north.

What you will see

In 10×50 binoculars under a dark sky, M85 is a small, faint smudge; from the suburbs it is easy to miss. A 70–100 mm telescope shows a soft oval glow with a bright, almost star-like center. A 200 mm telescope makes the oval shape clearer and shows NGC 4394 nearby as a fainter, rounder glow with a small bright core. Under a dark sky, larger scopes also pick up several faint galaxies in the surrounding field. Filters do not help.

History

Pierre Méchain discovered M85 on March 4, 1781, and reported it to Charles Messier, who observed it on March 18, 1781, the same night he cataloged several other Virgo galaxies. A supernova was recorded in M85 in 1960, and its unusual mix of old and younger stars at the center has made it a subject of later research.