This image of Centaurus A shows a spectacular new view of a supermassive
black hole's power. Jets and lobes powered by the central black hole in
this nearby galaxy are shown by submillimeter data (colored orange) from
the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) telescope in Chile and X-ray data
(colored blue) from the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Visible light data from
the Wide Field Imager on the Max-Planck/ESO 2.2 m telescope, also located
in Chile, shows the dust lane in the galaxy and background stars. The
X-ray jet in the upper left extends for about 13,000 light years away from
the black hole. The APEX data shows that material in the jet is travelling
at about half the speed of light.
| Fast Facts for Centaurus A: |
| Credit |
X-ray: NASA/CXC/CfA/R.Kraft et al.; Submillimeter: MPIfR/ESO/APEX/A.Weiss et al.; Optical: ESO/WFI |
| Release Date |
January 30, 2009 |
| Scale |
Image is 24.3 arcmin across. |
| Category |
Quasars & Active Galaxies |
| Coordinates (J2000) |
RA | Dec |
| Constellation |
Centaurus |
| Observation Date |
6 pointings between 03/22/2007 - 05/30/2007
|
| Observation Time |
199 hours |
| Obs. ID |
7797, 7798, 7799, 7800, 8489, 8490
|
| Instrument |
ACIS
|
| Also Known As | Cen A, NGC 5128 |
| Color Code |
X-ray (blue), Submillimeter (orange); Optical (white, brown) |
| Distance Estimate |
About 11 million light years
|
|
So so beautiful. Thank you for sharing these awesome images. I would like some more info on the Centaurus system, where can I find it? Thank you!
Posted by anna on Tuesday, 09.17.13 @ 10:38am