View Astronomy Picture of the Day Archives
Jul 12, 2018
Centaurus A
Image Credit & Copyright: CEDIC Team at Chilescope, Processing - Bernhard Hubl
Courtesy of http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Centaurus A
Image Credit & Copyright: CEDIC Team at Chilescope, Processing - Bernhard Hubl
Courtesy of http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Only 11 million light-years away,
Centaurus A
is the closest
active
galaxy to planet Earth.
Spanning over 60,000 light-years, the peculiar elliptical galaxy
also known
as NGC 5128,
is featured in
this
sharp telescopic view.
Centaurus A is apparently the result of a
collision
of two otherwise normal galaxies
resulting in a fantastic jumble of star clusters and
imposing dark dust lanes.
Near the galaxy's center, left over
cosmic debris is steadily
being consumed by a central black hole with a billion times
the mass of the Sun.
As
in other active galaxies, that process likely generates the radio,
X-ray, and gamma-ray energy radiated by
Centaurus A.
