M87 (NGC 4486) is a giant elliptical galaxy located at the center of the approximately 2000-member Virgo Cluster. With a diameter of 120,000 light years, it is larger than the Milky Way.
This galaxy is the result of an estimated 50 galaxy mergers. The estimate comes from the number of globular clusters in the galaxy (about 14,000) and its calculated total mass, which is about 50 times that of an average spiral galaxy.
The large number of mergers causes a sustained influx of matter into the center, which feeds the accretion disk and thus the supermassive black hole. The mass of the black hole in M87 is 6.6 billion solar masses.
The extreme forces of the magnetic field of the rapidly rotating accretion disk probably triggered the jet of which we can only see one side. The visible part of the jet has an angular extent of 20 arcseconds, which in projection corresponds to a distance of 5000 light years, it shoots from the center of the galaxy at a speed of 0.9c (0.9x the speed of light).
My goal for this photo was to capture this jet. However, in the usual long exposures it is outshone by the bright center. That's why I experimented with a lot of short individual exposures so that the core doesn't burn out, which would have made the jet invisible.
In order not to lose the tiny details, I didn't apply any noise reduction.
However, the focal length of my largest telescope and the local conditions do not allow for details in the image of the jet. At least you can see it, so in this case the goal has been achieved.
In the superimposed additional image, I enlarged the jet and made it more prominent in the central region with less stretch and a greater increase in color and contrast.
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