A large spiral galaxy. It is seen tilted at an angle, so that it is foreshortened and appears very wide. Its tightly-wound, blue spiral arms swirl out from its glowing center, spreading apart at the tips. They are followed by strands and clumps of dark red dust and spotted with pink dots where stars are forming in clouds of gas. The galaxy is surrounded by a slight glow and lies on a dark background. — Hubble · Messier 88 · ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker

Messier 88

Galaxy in Coma Berenices · 47 million light-years

🔭 Explore Messier 88 in the 3D map →View Messier 88 images →

Type	Galaxy
Constellation	Coma Berenices
Right ascension	12h 31m 59s
Declination	+14° 25′
Object distance	47 million light-years
Apparent magnitude	10.3
Apparent size	8.7′ (arc-minutes)
Approx. true diameter	118,944 light-years across
Also known as	M88 · NGC 4501

Messier 88 is a galaxy (also catalogued as NGC 4501) in the constellation Coma Berenices — an island of billions of stars far beyond our own Milky Way. It was recorded by Charles Messier in his famous catalogue of 110 deep-sky objects. It spans roughly 8.7 arc-minutes on the sky. At about magnitude 10.3, it shows up well in a small backyard telescope.

Although it appears about 8.7′ wide on the sky, its real span is roughly 118,944 light-years — the difference is a measure of how far away it lies.

Observing Messier 88

Messier 88 lies in the constellation Coma Berenices and is best placed in the evening sky around March. Its maximum altitude above the horizon depends on your latitude. Lying near the celestial equator, it can be seen from both hemispheres. A small backyard telescope will show it; binoculars may hint at it under dark skies. Note that the listed magnitude is spread across the whole object — diffuse galaxies and nebulae are often harder to see than the number alone suggests, so dark, moonless skies help a great deal.

See Messier 88 in Universe Finder

Open the interactive 3D map to fly to Messier 88 and see it in context among the real stars around it. Launch the 3D view →

Sources

Position, magnitude and angular size from the OpenNGC catalogue (Mattia Verga).
Object identity cross-referenced with SIMBAD (CDS, Strasbourg).
Image credits and the original observation source are linked with each photograph.

Related objects

Andromeda Galaxy — galaxy
Triangulum Galaxy — galaxy
Whirlpool Galaxy — galaxy
Sombrero Galaxy — galaxy
Messier 110 — galaxy