Type

Supermassive

Location

In the constellation Coma Berenices

Distance

335 million light-years (103 megaparsecs)

Mass

9.8 billion to 27 billion times the mass of the Sun

Size

Diameter roughly 6 to 17 times the size of the orbit of Neptune

Discovery Methods

• Measuring the motions of stars

A combined infrared and visible-light image shows many of the galaxies of the Coma Cluster, including the massive elliptical galaxies NGC 4889 (bright object just left of center) and NGC 4874. [NASA/JPL/Caltech/L.Jenkins (GSFC)]

This document was last modified: December 23, 2011.