Alternate Names
Sagittarius A*
Type
Location
In the constellation Sagittarius
Distance
27,000 light-years (8 kiloparsecs)
Mass
4.1 million times the mass of the Sun
Size
Diameter roughly 15 million miles (24 million km).
Discovery Methods
A Hubble Space Telescope image shows a jet of superhot gas racing away from the nucleus of M87 at 99 percent of the speed of light. The jet spans several thousand light-years. [NASA, Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)]
This document was last modified: October 24, 2005.


