{"release":{"id":"DR1","released_on":"2026-08-21","doi":null,"url":"https://spacecatalog.org/releases#dr1"},"epoch":{"requested":"now","label":"J2026.654","julian_year":2026.654,"time":"2026-08-27T17:05:51.321Z","years_from_j2000":26.654,"frame":"date","applied":"Proper motion, then precession and nutation. The catalogued J2000 position is carried along the great circle the object's own published motion puts it on, at a constant velocity, and the result is referred to the true equator and equinox of this instant. Those are separate things: the motion moves the object, and the rotation turns the grid under it by about fifty arcseconds a year, with nutation adding up to another seventeen.","excluded":"Parallax, the radial-velocity perspective term, aberration and refraction; each is below the accuracy of the catalogued positions themselves. An object with no published proper motion comes back where the catalogue has it rather than at a fabricated zero, and says so with a null pm_ra_mas_yr. A body with no fixed position is not propagated at all — its place comes from an ephemeris, which is what /api/v1/visible answers with."},"slug":"m87-star","name":"M87*","class":"supermassive_black_hole","category":"black_hole","object_type":"Supermassive black hole","mag":null,"mag_band":null,"abs_mag":null,"abs_mag_band":null,"distance_ly":53500000,"distance_method":null,"ra_deg":187.70593,"dec_deg":12.39112,"epoch_ra_deg":188.045902,"epoch_dec_deg":12.242769,"epoch_moved_arcsec":null,"pm_ra_mas_yr":null,"pm_dec_mas_yr":null,"orbits":null,"semi_major_axis_km":null,"periapsis_km":null,"mass_kg":1.292466415953733e+40,"mass_msun":6500000000,"constellation":"Virgo","discovered":"1918","featured":true,"url":"https://spacecatalog.org/object/m87-star","radius_km":null,"radius_kind":null,"data_quality":null,"description":"The first black hole ever photographed. Sitting at the heart of the giant elliptical galaxy Messier 87, it launches a relativistic jet of plasma nearly 5,000 light-years long.","properties":{"accretion":"hot-flow","mass_solar":6500000000,"disc_inclination_deg":17},"designations":[{"catalog":"Common name","designation":"M87*"},{"catalog":"Common name","designation":"Messier 87 black hole"}],"source":{"id":"curated","name":"SpaceCatalog curated data","url":"https://spacecatalog.org/releases","license":"CC-BY-4.0"},"updated_at":"2026-08-27T16:03:54.983Z","attribution":"Data from SpaceCatalog.org. Individual records carry their source and license in `source`; attribution is required for CC-BY and CC-BY-SA rows."}