Centaurus A: X-Rays from an Active Galaxy
Credit & Copyright: R.Kraft
(SAO) et al.,
CXO,
NASA
Explanation:
Its core
hidden
from optical view by a thick lane of dust, the giant elliptical
galaxy
Centaurus A was among the first objects
observed by the orbiting
Chandra X-ray Observatory.
Astronomers were not disappointed, as Centaurus A's
appearance in x-rays makes its classification as an
active galaxy easy to appreciate.
Perhaps the most striking feature of
this
Chandra false-color x-ray view
is the jet, 30,000 light-years long.
Blasting toward the upper left corner of the picture,
the jet
seems to arise from the galaxy's bright central x-ray source --
suspected of harboring a black hole with a million or so times
the mass of the Sun.
Centaurus A
is also seen to be teeming with other
individual x-ray sources and a pervasive, diffuse
x-ray glow.
Most of these individual sources are likely to be neutron stars
or solar mass black holes accreting material from their less
exotic binary
companion stars.
The diffuse
high-energy glow
represents gas throughout the galaxy
heated to temperatures of millions
of degrees C.
At 11 million light-years distant in the constellation
Centaurus,
Centaurus A (NGC 5128) is the closest
active galaxy.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
