Alternate Names

NGC 4649, Arp 116

Type

Supermassive

Location

In the constellation Virgo

Distance

51 million light-years (15.6 megaparsecs)

Mass

1.6 billion to 3.4 billion times the mass of the Sun

Size

Diameter 6 billion-13 billion miles (10 billion-20 billion km), up to twice the diameter of Neptune's orbit around the Sun

Discovery Methods

• Measuring the motions of stars

Measuring the motions of stars

Because a black hole is both massive and compact, it exerts a strong gravitational pull on the material around it. Astronomers can deduce the presence of a supermassive black hole in the core of a galaxy by measuring the velocities of stars that orbit the black hole. A more-massive black hole will accelerate nearby stars to greater speeds, so the velocities of stars can reveal not only the presence of a black hole, but its mass as well.

More about black hole discovery methods »

This document was last modified: January 21, 2011.