Alternate Names

NGC 221

Type

Supermassive

Location

in the constellation Andromeda

Finder Chart

Distance

2.4 million light-years (0.81 megaparsecs)

Mass

3 million times the mass of the Sun

Size

Diameter about 10 million miles -- about 12 times the diameter of the Sun

Discovery Methods

• Measuring the motions of stars

M32

Ground-based picture of M31 and M32. M32 is the small blob of light at bottom, below the much larger M31 galaxy.

Hubble Space Telescope image of the central region of M32, showing millions of stars packed into a region that spans only a few score light-years.

Animation of stars orbiting the black hole in M32.

This document was last modified: November 19, 2009.