NGC-4253

FAIL2 

Alternate Names

Markarian 766

Type

Supermassive

Location

in the constellation Coma Berenices

Distance

170 million light-years (98 megaparsecs)

Mass

20 million times the mass of the Sun

Size

Diameter roughly the size of the orbit of Mercury

Discovery Methods

• Detection of an accretion disk
• Measuring the motions of gas

Artist's concept of the accretion disk around the central black hole. The bright blobs are knots of iron gas in the disk. [NASA/Dana Berry (SkyWorks Digital)]

This document was last modified: May 11, 2012.