Type

Supermassive

Location

in the constellation Ursa Major

Finder Chart

Distance

120 million light-years

Mass

23 million times the mass of the Sun

Size

Slightly larger than Mercury's orbit around the Sun

Discovery Methods

• Measuring the motions of gas

An optical image of NGC 3616, showing how the bright core overwhelms the rest of the galaxy. [STScI/Matt Malkan/UCLA]

This document was last modified: February 1, 2006.