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June 6, 2022

Size comparison of M87* to Sgr A*

The supermassive black holes M87* and Sagittarius A*, or Sgr A*, are not even in the same galaxy, but if it were possible to place them next to each other, Sgr A* would be dwarfed by M87*, which is 1,500 times more massive.

This still is from the NSF video Introducing Sagittarius A* (the Milky Way Black Hole).

[Research supported by U.S. National Science Foundation.]

Learn more in the NSF news release Astrophysicists detect first black hole-neutron star mergers and in this "Science Matters" story. Or learn more about black holes and how they're studied. (Date of image: 2022; date originally posted to NSF Multimedia Gallery: June 6, 2022)

Credit: National Science Foundation/Keyi "Onyx" Li; Lia Medeiros, Institute for Advanced Study


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