NGC 4472 elliptical galaxy, hosting a stellar mass black hole

Astronomers using XMM-Newton data found that the elliptical galaxy (named NGC 4472 or M49) shown in this image hosts a stellar-mass black hole in the act of feeding. This black hole is the first ever found in a globular star cluster.

The galaxy is situated about fifty million light-years away in the constellation Virgo, one of the many members of the Virgo galaxy cluster. This image was taken in December 1996 at the KPNO 0.9-metre telescope.