---
title: "Here’s How Big the M87 Black Hole Is Compared to the Earth"
description: "## Pale Black Dot"
date: "2019-04-11"
modified: "2019-04-11"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/big-m87-black-hole-compared-the-earth"
categories:
  - "Astrophysics"
  - "Black Holes"
  - "Science & Energy"
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "black hole"
  - "space"
  - "the digest"
---

# Here’s How Big the M87 Black Hole Is Compared to the Earth

![The black hole that scientists imaged is a stellar giant. It would take millions of Earths lined up side-by-side to span its length.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/big-m87-black-hole-compared-the-earth.png>)
*\<em\>Image: Image via Pixabay/Tag Hartman-Simkins\</em\>*

## Pale Black Dot

On Wednesday, a team of scientists from around the world released the first ever directly-observed [image of the event horizon of a black hole](<https://futurism.com/scientists-release-first-image-black-hole>).

The black hole, M87\*, is found within the constellation Virgo — and as the [webcomic *XKCD*](<https://xkcd.com/2135/>) illustrated, it's as big as our entire solar system.

![](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/m87_black_hole_size_comparison.png>)

## Stellar Giant

The gigantic black hole, not counting the [giant rings of trapped light](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/black-hole-image-einstein-right-relativity>) orbiting it, is about 23.6 billion miles (38 billion kilometers) across, [according to *Science News*](<https://www.sciencenews.org/article/black-hole-first-picture-event-horizon-telescope>).

Meanwhile, the Earth is just 7,917 miles in diameter — meaning our planet wouldn't even be a drop in the bucket of the giant, black void. Based Futurism's calculations, it would take just over 2.98 million Earths lined up in a row to span the length of M87\*. For a sense of scale, that's about how many [adult giraffes](<https://www.livescience.com/27336-giraffes.html>) it would take to span the diameter of Earth.

## Paging Pluto

Our entire solar system is just about 2.27 billion miles wide, meaning we could just barely fit the whole thing into the newly-imaged black hole's event horizon.

Thankfully, M87\* is about 55 million light years away — so while we could readily fit inside its gaping maw, we're way too far to get sucked in.

**READ MORE:** [Revealed: a black hole the size of the solar system](<https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/revealed-a-black-hole-the-size-of-the-solar-system>) \[*Cosmos*\]

**More on M87\*:** *[Scientists: Next Black Whole Image Will Be Way Clearer](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/scientists-next-black-hole-image-clearer>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)