Figure 21-15: A Supermassive Black Hole The galaxy NGC 4261 lies some 30 million pc (100 million ly) from Earth in the constellation Virgo. (a) This composite view superimposes a visible-light image of the galaxy (white) with a radio image of the galaxy’s immense jets (orange). (b) This Hubble Space Telescope image shows a disk of gas and dust about 250 pc (800 ly) across at the center of NGC 4261. Observations indicate that a supermassive black hole is at the center of the disk.
(NASA, ESA)