NGC 4261
Encyclopedia
NGC 4261 is an elliptical galaxy
located behind the Virgo Cluster
in the W-cloud.
The active galactic nucleus
(AGN) contains a 400 million solar mass
supermassive black hole
(SMBH) with a 800 light-year-wide spiral-shaped disk of dust fueling it.
The galaxy is estimated to be about 60 thousand light-years across, and the jet is estimated to span about 88 thousand light-years.
Elliptical galaxy
An elliptical galaxy is a galaxy having an approximately ellipsoidal shape and a smooth, nearly featureless brightness profile. They range in shape from nearly spherical to highly flat and in size from hundreds of millions to over one trillion stars...
located behind the Virgo Cluster
Virgo Cluster
The Virgo Cluster is a cluster of galaxies whose center is 53.8 ± 0.3 Mly away in the constellation Virgo. Comprising approximately 1300 member galaxies, the cluster forms the heart of the larger Local Supercluster, of which the Local Group is an outlying member...
in the W-cloud.
The active galactic nucleus
Active galactic nucleus
An active galactic nucleus is a compact region at the centre of a galaxy that has a much higher than normal luminosity over at least some portion, and possibly all, of the electromagnetic spectrum. Such excess emission has been observed in the radio, infrared, optical, ultra-violet, X-ray and...
(AGN) contains a 400 million solar mass
Solar mass
The solar mass , , is a standard unit of mass in astronomy, used to indicate the masses of other stars and galaxies...
supermassive black hole
Supermassive black hole
A supermassive black hole is the largest type of black hole in a galaxy, in the order of hundreds of thousands to billions of solar masses. Most, and possibly all galaxies, including the Milky Way, are believed to contain supermassive black holes at their centers.Supermassive black holes have...
(SMBH) with a 800 light-year-wide spiral-shaped disk of dust fueling it.
The galaxy is estimated to be about 60 thousand light-years across, and the jet is estimated to span about 88 thousand light-years.