Extreme object

Sagittarius A*

Sagittarius A* is a black hole 26 996 light-years away, weighing 4.30 million Suns.

The black hole at the centre of our galaxy, four million Suns in one point. Every star on this map goes round it.

Key facts

Kind

Black hole

Distance

26 996 light-years

Mass

4.30 million Suns

See it from here

Too faint for the eye; a telescope, or a long photograph, shows it.

How the map draws it

Drawn as a ring at its measured distance; a black hole has no shape to draw and a pulsar is far too small — the kind of thing, not this exact one · while this card is open its picture is drawn at its place, far larger than it would look from here.