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

1

Ground-based picture of M31 and M32. M32 is the small blob of light at bottom, below the much larger M31 galaxy. [NOAO/AURA/NSF]

This document was last modified: October 24, 2005.