Alternate Names

Spindle Galaxy

Type

Supermassive

Location

in the constellation Sextans

Distance

32 million light-years (9.7 megaparsecs)

Mass

400 million to 2 billion times the mass of the Sun

Size

Diameter probably equivalent to the size of Uranus' orbit around the Sun

Discovery Methods

• Measuring the motions of gas
• Measuring the motions of stars

A view of NGC 3115, a lenticular galaxy that we see edge-on, from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. The black hole is at the center of the bright bulge of stars in the middle of the galaxy. [John Kormendy]

This document was last modified: January 23, 2006.