Alternate Names

IC 4625

Type

Supermassive

Location

in the constellation Ophiuchus

Distance

320 million light-years (98 megaparsecs)

Mass

870 million to 2 billion times the mass of the Sun

Size

Diameter roughly equal to the diameter of Uranus' or Neptune's orbit around the Sun

Discovery Methods

• Measuring the motions of stars

A combined X-ray and optical view of NGC 6240. The purple is produced by X-rays from gas that's been heated by radiation from vigorous young stars in the merging galaxies. [NASA/CXC/SAO/E.Nardini et al/STScI]

This document was last modified: May 1, 2013.