Alternate Names

NGC 4649, Arp 116

Type

Supermassive

Location

In the constellation Virgo

Distance

51 million light-years (15.6 megaparsecs)

Mass

1.6 billion to 3.4 billion times the mass of the Sun

Size

Diameter 6 billion-13 billion miles (10 billion-20 billion km), up to twice the diameter of Neptune's orbit around the Sun

Discovery Methods

• Measuring the motions of stars

An optical view of M60 shows a giant galaxy shaped like a rugby ball. A companion spiral galaxy, NGC 4647, shines through the outskirts of M60 at lower left.

[SDSS]

This document was last modified: August 21, 2008.