Markarian 231

Quasar

The closest known quasar to Earth, harboring a binary supermassive black hole at its core.

Facts

TypeQuasar
Distance from Earth581,000,000 ly
Mass9.15 × 10^37 kg
Apparent magnitude13.8
Redshift0.042
HemisphereNorthern
Discovered1969

Markarian 231 in context

Its mass is 46,003,017 times the mass of the Sun.

The light reaching us from Markarian 231 tonight left it around 581,000,000 years ago.

Of the 9 quasars these pages cover, only 0 lie closer to us.

Its light arrives redshifted by z = 0.042, stretched on the way here by the universe's expansion.

It has been on record since 1969.

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