Messier 87 (also known as M87, Virgo A or NGC 4486) is a supergiant elliptical galaxy. It was discovered in 1781 by the French astronomer Charles Messier, who catalogued it as a nebulous feature. The second brightest galaxy within the northern Virgo Cluster, it is about 16.4 million parsecs (53.5 million light-years) from Earth.