Very Large Array radio telescope image of the rotating central disk,
as traced by Masers, superimposed on an optical image. The high rotation
velocity indicates that the central object of less than a light year diameter
contains some 36 million Solar masses, the highest concentration ever found for
a galactic central object (Massive Dark Object, MDO; many scientists believe
that the MDOs are massive Black Holes).
NRAO press release concerning this discovery and photo.
- More images of M106
- Amateur images of M106
Last Modification: 28 Jun 1998, 22:30 MET