Talk:Messier 87

extremely flimsy most massive

Is it important to answer the question of whether M87 is one of the most massive galaxies in the local universe, so important that it should be mentioned in the second sentence of the article?

I also note that what's there now needs work. A lot. The phrase "One of the largest and most massive galaxies in the local universe (b)" appears in the article, with the footnote (b) saying: "Local universe" is not a strictly defined term, but it is often taken as that part of the universe out to distances between about 50 million to a billion light-years." The hyperlinked-to wikipedia article indicates that M87 is 13th in a list of "notable" galaxies. 13th is supposed to be impressive? Also, as "notable" isn't explained, for all we know, the list could omit additional galaxies larger than M87. And now we have needlessly brought in the vague terms "notable" and "local universe". One perspective is that in the list, the major axis diameter of M87 is about 1/6 that of the largest. Another perspective is that the linked-to page sorts by diameter (not mass - mass is not even shown), whereas the sentence is about mass. ~2026-36122-25 (talk) 04:51, 3 July 2026 (UTC)