Alternate Names

Sagittarius A*

Type

Supermassive

Location

In the constellation Sagittarius

Finder Chart

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

• Measuring the motions of stars

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.