Space and Astronomy Atlas

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Celestial Objects

Messier 86

Galaxies

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Messier 86, also known as M86 or NGC 4406, is a lenticular galaxy in the constellation Virgo and a member of the Virgo Cluster, discovered by Charles Messier in 1781. It lies roughly 52 million light-years from Earth and shows the largest blueshift of any object in Messier's catalogue, meaning it is moving toward the Milky Way rather than away from it, an effect attributed to its own orbital motion within the gravitationally bound Virgo Cluster rather than to the overall expansion of the universe.

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