LMC-X-1

FAIL2 

Type

Stellar mass

Location

in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a companion galaxy to the Milky Way; in the constellation Dorado

Distance

165,000 light-years

Mass

10.9 times the mass of the Sun

Size

Diameter roughly 40 miles (65 km), the size of a large city

Discovery Methods

• Detection of an accretion disk

An X-ray view shows the region around LMC X-1 (bright area at left). X-rays from the black hole's accretion disk cause clouds of gas around the system to emit their own X-rays. [ROSAT/MPE/NASA]

This document was last modified: September 17, 2010.