Type

Supermassive

Location

in the constellation Lynx

Distance

76 million light-years (23 megaparsecs)

Mass

9 million to 36 million times the mass of the Sun

Size

From smaller than Mercury's orbit to as large as Venus' orbit

Discovery Methods

• Measuring the motions of stars

A Hubble Space Telescope image of clouds of gas billowing around the black hole at the core of NGC 2778. [NASA/STScI]

This document was last modified: February 1, 2006.