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

NGC 4253

Artist's concept of the XMM-Newton space telescope, which has made extensive observations of NGC 4253.

Artist's concept of the accretion disk around the central black hole. The bright blobs are knots of iron gas in the disk.

This document was last modified: May 11, 2012.