Composite View of the Galaxy Centaurus A in Visible Light, Far-Infrared and X-Rays (IMAGE)

UK Space Agency

Composite View of the Galaxy Centaurus A in Visible Light, Far-Infrared and X-Rays

Caption

In visible light the galaxy appears as a ball of stars, with a thick lane of dust running across it. The far-infrared light shows a glow from jets of material emanating from near the black hole in the galaxy's core. Also visible is a twisted disc of dust, the remnants of a galaxy that was swallowed up in the galaxy's distant past, and also two clumps of dust in the top left and bottom right. In X-rays the jets become clearly visible, along with the X-ray glow from the super-heated material that they are plowing in to.

Credit

Far-infrared: ESA/Herschel/PACS/SPIRE/C.D. Wilson, MacMaster University, Canada; X-ray: ESA/XMM-Newton/EPIC; visible: ESO/MPG 2.2-m telescope on La Silla.

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