M89

Credits: NASA, ESA

M89 (also known as NGC4552) is one of eight galaxies in the Virgo cluster that Charles Messier discovered on 18th March, 1781. An elliptical galaxy, M89 is almost exactly circular. It is located about 50 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo. M89 contains approximately 100 billion stars and well over 2,000 globular clusters. It was the first galaxy discovered to have an extended envelope, which means that it has a larger region of light surrounding it than other elliptical galaxies, most likely because of its high number of stars and globular clusters. At the center of M89 is a supermassive black hole estimated to have one billion times the mass of our Sun.

Facts about M89 by Keith Turnecliff

Telescopes that are 8 inches or larger can see the 9.8-magnitude galaxy as a faint ball of light.
The best time to observe M89 is during May.