NGC 4486
E525970
NGC 4486, better known as Messier 87 (M87), is a giant elliptical galaxy notable for its supermassive black hole and prominent relativistic jet.
All labels observed (4)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| NGC 4486 canonical | 4 |
| M87* | 3 |
| M87 | 1 |
| Messier 87 | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T5410474 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: NGC 4486 Context triple: [Virgo Cluster, containsGalaxy, NGC 4486]
-
A.
NGC 4649
NGC 4649, also known as Messier 60, is a massive elliptical galaxy in the constellation Virgo notable for its bright central region and supermassive black hole.
-
B.
NGC 5236
NGC 5236, also known as the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy or Messier 83, is a bright, nearby barred spiral starburst galaxy prominent in the constellation Hydra.
-
C.
NGC 5128
NGC 5128, also known as Centaurus A, is a nearby peculiar elliptical galaxy with a prominent dust lane and one of the strongest radio sources in the sky.
-
D.
NGC 4477
NGC 4477 is a barred lenticular galaxy located in the constellation Virgo and is a member of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies.
-
E.
Messier 51
Messier 51, also known as the Whirlpool Galaxy, is a famous face-on spiral galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici noted for its striking structure and interaction with a companion galaxy.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: NGC 4486 Target entity description: NGC 4486, better known as Messier 87 (M87), is a giant elliptical galaxy notable for its supermassive black hole and prominent relativistic jet.
-
A.
NGC 4649
NGC 4649, also known as Messier 60, is a massive elliptical galaxy in the constellation Virgo notable for its bright central region and supermassive black hole.
-
B.
NGC 5236
NGC 5236, also known as the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy or Messier 83, is a bright, nearby barred spiral starburst galaxy prominent in the constellation Hydra.
-
C.
NGC 5128
NGC 5128, also known as Centaurus A, is a nearby peculiar elliptical galaxy with a prominent dust lane and one of the strongest radio sources in the sky.
-
D.
NGC 4477
NGC 4477 is a barred lenticular galaxy located in the constellation Virgo and is a member of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies.
-
E.
Messier 51
Messier 51, also known as the Whirlpool Galaxy, is a famous face-on spiral galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici noted for its striking structure and interaction with a companion galaxy.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Messier object
ⓘ
Virgo Cluster member ⓘ elliptical galaxy ⓘ giant elliptical galaxy ⓘ radio galaxy ⓘ |
| absoluteMagnitudeV | ~−22 ⓘ |
| alsoKnownAs |
3C 274
ⓘ
M87 ⓘ
linked to:
Messier 87
Messier 87 ⓘ Virgo A ⓘ
linked to:
Virgo Cluster
|
| angularSize | ~7.2 × 6.8 arcminutes ⓘ |
| apparentMagnitudeV | ~8.6 ⓘ |
| blackHoleImageAnnouncementYear | 2019 ⓘ |
| catalogNumber |
3C 274
ⓘ
M87 ⓘ
linked to:
Messier 87
Messier 87 ⓘ NGC 4486 ⓘ Virgo A ⓘ
linked to:
Virgo Cluster
|
| centralRegion | low-ionization nuclear emission-line region ⓘ |
| clusterMembership | Virgo Cluster ⓘ |
| constellation | Virgo ⓘ |
| declination | +12° 23′ 28″ ⓘ |
| discoveredBy | Charles Messier ⓘ |
| discoveryYear | 1781 ⓘ |
| distanceFromEarth |
~16.5 megaparsecs
ⓘ
~53 million light-years ⓘ |
| gammaRayEmission | detected ⓘ |
| hasJet | relativistic jet ⓘ |
| hasSupermassiveBlackHole |
M87*
ⓘ
linked to:
Messier 87
|
| includedInCatalog |
Messier catalogue
ⓘ
New General Catalogue ⓘ Third Cambridge Catalogue of Radio Sources ⓘ
linked to:
3C catalogue of radio sources
|
| jetDiscoveredBy |
Heber Curtis
ⓘ
linked to:
Heber Doust Curtis
|
| jetDiscoveryYear | 1918 ⓘ |
| jetLength |
~100,000 light-years (radio)
ⓘ
~5,000 light-years (optical) ⓘ |
| locatedIn | NGC 4486 ⓘ |
| luminosity | several ×10^10 solar luminosities ⓘ |
| mass |
~2.7×10^12 solar masses
ⓘ
~6.5×10^9 solar masses ⓘ |
| morphologicalType | E0–E1 ⓘ |
| notableEvent | first black hole shadow image ⓘ |
| observedBy | Event Horizon Telescope ⓘ |
| radialVelocity | ~1284 km/s ⓘ |
| radioEmission | strong ⓘ |
| redshift | 0.00428 ⓘ |
| rightAscension | 12h 30m 49.4s ⓘ |
| roleInCluster | central dominant galaxy ⓘ |
| xRayEmission | strong ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: NGC 4486 Description of subject: NGC 4486, better known as Messier 87 (M87), is a giant elliptical galaxy notable for its supermassive black hole and prominent relativistic jet.
Referenced by (9)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: NGC 4486
linked to: NGC 4486
linked to: NGC 4486
linked to: NGC 4486