page_title: OJ 287
hierarchical_section_title: OJ 287
caption_attribution_description: English: Sizes of Black Holes in Galaxy OJ 287 Relative to the Solar System - April 29, 2020 http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/images/6796-ssc2020-11b-Sizes-of-Black-Holes-in-Galaxy-OJ-287-Relative-to-the-Solar-System Two supermassive black holes are locked in an orbital dance at the core of the distant galaxy OJ 287. This diagram shows their sizes relative to the solar system. The larger one, with about 18 billion times the mass of our sun (right), would encompass all the planets in the solar system with room to spare. The smaller one is about 150 million times the mass of our sun (left), which would be large enough to swallow up everything out to the asteroid belt, just inside the orbit of Jupiter.
context_page_description: OJ 287 is a BL Lac object located 3.5 billion light-years away that has produced quasi-periodic optical outbursts going back approximately 120 years, as first apparent on photographic plates from 1891. Seen on photographic plates since at least 1887, it was first detected at radio wavelengths during the course of the Ohio Sky Survey. It is a supermassive black hole binary. The intrinsic brightness of the flashes corresponds to over a trillion times the Sun's luminosity, greater than the entire Milky Way galaxy's light output.
context_section_description: OJ 287 is a BL Lac object located 3.5 billion light-years away that has produced quasi-periodic optical outbursts going back approximately 120 years, as  first apparent on photographic plates from 1891. Seen on photographic plates since at least 1887, it was first detected at radio wavelengths during the course of the Ohio Sky Survey. It is a supermassive black hole binary. The intrinsic brightness of the flashes corresponds to over a trillion times the Sun's luminosity, greater than the entire Milky Way galaxy's light output.
caption: Comparisons of large and small black holes in galaxy OJ 287 to the Solar System
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "5120", "Image ImageLength": "2880", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image Compression": "LZW", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image ImageDescription": "Two supermassive black holes are locked in an orbital dance at the core of the distant galaxy OJ 287. This diagram shows their sizes relative to the solar system. The larger one, with about 18 billion times the mass of our sun (right), would encompass all the planets in the solar system with room to spare. The smaller one is about 150 million times the mass of our sun (left), which would be large enough to swallow up everything out to the asteroid belt, just inside the orbit of Jupiter.", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "250", "Image YResolution": "250", "Image PlanarConfiguration": "1", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS6 (Macintosh)", "Image DateTime": "2020:04:28 18:25:38", "Image ExifOffset": "760", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "898", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "3478", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "5120", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2880"}