Type

Supermassive

Location

in the constellation Virgo

Finder Chart

Distance

40 million light-years (11.7 megaparsecs)

Mass

Roughly 175 million times the mass of the Sun

Size

Diameter larger than the size of the asteroid belt.

Discovery Methods

• Measuring the motions of stars

A ground-based telescopic view of NGC 4697. [2MASS]

This document was last modified: October 24, 2005.