Alternate Names

K16

Type

Stellar mass

Location

in the constellation Aquarius

Distance

16,000 light-years

Mass

16 times the mass of the Sun

Size

Diameter roughly 60 miles (96 km)

Discovery Methods

• Detection of an accretion disk
• Measuring the motions of a companion star

A radio image shows the jets from SS433 forming a corkscrew pattern. The accretion disk around the black hole wobbles a bit, like a child’s spinning top, so its jets squirt into space like a stream of water from a rotating sprinkler head, forming the corkscrew. []

This document was last modified: June 5, 2007.