This close-up of M32’s core—a region about 175 light years across—reveals the steadily denser concentration of stars as one moves toward the center of the galaxy. Stars seem to be drawn here by a strong gravitational source, which some astronomers believe is a black hole with 3 million times the mass of the Sun. So dense are the stars in this region that a person standing on a planet near the center and looking into the night sky would see 100 million times as many stars as we see from Earth.