How big is the black hole in the center of the galaxy?
about 14.6 million miles
But these black holes are nothing compared to supermassive black holes, like Sagittarius A*, which lives at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. It covers a region about 14.6 million miles in diameter. That’s roughly 168 Jupiters across, and inside is the same amount of mass as 4 million suns combined.
What is the radius for the black hole at the center of our galaxy if it has the mass of 4 million solar masses?
The supermassive black hole at the centre of our galaxy, called Sagittarius A*, has a mass of about 4 million solar masses. That makes its Schwarzschild radius about 13 million kilometres.
What is the Schwarzschild radius of the black hole at the center of the Milky Way?
The Milky Way Galaxy black hole is the closest example of the supermassive black holes, located only ~25,000 light years away from us. Its mass is estimated to be 4 million times the mass of the sun, which implies that the Schwarzschild radius is about 17 times that of Sun’s radius.
What is the diameter of a black hole?
A black hole with the mass of the sun has a diameter of about 6 kilometers, or 4 miles.
How was the radius of the black hole observed?
The radius of the black hole was observed with the Event Horizon Telescope – a chain of radio telescopes in Hawaii, Arizona, and California. By combining these telescopic observations, scientists are able to obtained unprecedented resolutions when observing objects in the night sky.
Where is the supermassive black hole located in the Milky Way?
Supermassive black hole. The complex astronomical radio source Sagittarius A appears to be located almost exactly at the Galactic Center (approx. 18 hrs, −29 deg) [clarification needed], and contains an intense compact radio source, Sagittarius A*, which coincides with a supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way.
Are black holes at the heart of all galaxies?
Black holes that can be billions of times more massive than our sun may reside at the heart of most galaxies. Such supermassive black holes are so powerful that activity at their boundaries can ripple throughout their host galaxies.
Where is the center of the Milky Way galaxy?
The center of the Milky Way galaxy, with the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), located in the middle, is revealed in these images. As described in our press release, astronomers have used NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory to take a major step in understanding why material around Sgr A* is extraordinarily faint in X-rays.