Astronomy Picture of the Day

Explanation: Jets of streaming plasma expelled by the central black hole of a massive elliptical galaxy likely light up this composite image of 3C296. The jets emanating from NGC 5532 and are nearly a million light years long. Exactly how the central black hole expels the infalling matter is still unknown. After clearing the galaxy, however, the jets inflate large radio bubbles that could glow for millions of years. If excited by a passing front, radio bubbles can even light up again after a billion years. Visible light is depicted in the above image in blue, while radio waves are shown in red. The radio map was created with the Very Large Array of radio telescopes.

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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (USRA)
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& Michigan Tech. U.

Publications with keywords: jet - radio galaxy - 3C296
Publications with words: jet - radio galaxy - 3C296
See also:

• A Jet from the Sun
• Cosmic Tornado HH 49 50
• X Ray Triple Jet
• The Crab Nebula in X Rays
• X Ray Jet From Centaurus A
• Arcs and Jets in Herbig Haro 34
• A Panorama of Oddities in Orion A

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