Messier 86: Lenticular Galaxy in Virgo

M86 shares a low-power field with M84, and the pair is the usual starting point for exploring Markarian's Chain in the Virgo Cluster. It is one of the brighter galaxies in the region and is easy to spot once you are in the right place.

What it is

M86 is a lenticular galaxy: a disk galaxy with a large central bulge but no spiral arms and little gas. It lies about 52 million light-years away, and its visible glow spans over 100,000 light-years.

What sets M86 apart is its motion. Almost every galaxy is moving away from us as the universe expands, but M86 is approaching, with the highest blueshift of any Messier object. The likely reason is that it is falling through the Virgo Cluster from the far side, toward us, fast enough to overcome the expansion. As it plows through the cluster's hot gas, it is losing its own gas, which X-ray telescopes see as a long plume trailing behind it.

When to see it

From about 40°N, M86 is highest around midnight in early April and around 10 p.m. standard time (11 p.m. daylight time) in early May, reaching roughly 63° above the southern horizon. It is also visible from most of the Southern Hemisphere, in the northern sky during autumn.

How to find it

Start at Denebola, the star at Leo's tail, and Vindemiatrix (Epsilon Virginis) about 18° to its east-southeast. The midpoint of that line, about 9° from each star, lands you on M84 and M86. Use your lowest power and sweep slowly; when you find two round glows about 17′ apart, the eastern one is M86. From here, Markarian's Chain curves east and then northeast toward NGC 4477 and NGC 4473.

What you will see

Binoculars under a dark sky may show M86 as a faint spot of haze next to M84. In a 70–100 mm telescope it is a soft oval glow, slightly larger than M84, brightening toward the center. A 200 mm telescope shows its slightly elongated shape and brings in the other galaxies of the chain, including the close pair NGC 4435 and NGC 4438 just to the east. From the suburbs the bright cores still show, but the outer glow fades. Filters do not help.

History

Charles Messier discovered M86 on March 18, 1781, together with M84 and several other Virgo galaxies. The chain it begins is named for Armenian astronomer Benjamin Markarian, who studied it in the 1960s. Later measurements of its velocity showed it is coming toward us, which made it a key example of galaxies moving within a cluster.