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Turbulent Cauldron of Starbirth in N in Centaurus A Galaxy | Hubble
The NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope offers a stunning unprecedented close-up view of a turbulent firestorm of starbirth along a nearly edge-on dust disk girdling Centaurus A, the nearest active galaxy to Earth.
Distance:13 million light years
Credit: E.J. Schreier, (Space Telescope Science Institute) and NASA/European Space Agency (ESA)
Galaxy Centaurus A: Revisiting an Old Friend | NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory
Just weeks after NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory began operations in 1999, the telescope pointed at Centaurus A (Cen A, for short). This galaxy, at a distance of about 12 million light years from Earth, contains a gargantuan jet blasting away from a central supermassive black hole.
Since then, Chandra has returned its attention to this galaxy, each time gathering more data. And, like an old family photo that has been digitally restored, new processing techniques are providing astronomers with a new look at this old galactic friend.
This image of Cen A contains data from observations, equivalent to over nine and a half days worth of observing time, taken between 1999 and 2012. In this image, the lowest-energy X-rays Chandra detects are in red, while the medium-energy X-rays are green, and the highest-energy ones are blue.
As in all of Chandra's images of Cen A, this one shows the spectacular jet of outflowing material that is generated by the giant black hole at the galaxy's center. The new image also highlights a dust lane that wraps around the waist of the galaxy. Astronomers think this feature is a remnant of a collision that Cen A experienced with a smaller galaxy millions of years ago.
In addition to allowing for the creation of new images, the data housed in Chandra's extensive archive on Cen A provide a rich resource for a wide range of scientific investigations. For example, in 2013, researchers published new findings on the point-like X-ray sources in Cen A. They found that these sources had masses that fell into two categories. These separate groups correspond to systems where either a neutron star or a black hole is pulling material from a companion star. Information like this may tell us important details about the way the massive stars explode, and gives us even more reason to appreciate this new view of a familiar object.
Hubblecast 46: The Hubblecast's Dr. J, aka Joe Liske, takes us on a tour of Centaurus A, a bright and dusty galaxy in the Southern sky. Hubble's observations are the most detailed ever made of this galaxy.
Galaxy Centaurus A: Black Hole Jets Made Visible | ESO APEX & NASA Chandra
Color composite image of Centaurus A, revealing the lobes and jets emanating from the active galaxy’s central black hole. This is a composite of images obtained with three instruments, operating at very different wavelengths. The 870-micron submillimeter data, from LABOCA on APEX, are shown in orange. X-ray data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory are shown in blue. Visible light data from the Wide Field Imager (WFI) on the MPG/ESO 2.2 m telescope located at La Silla, Chile, show the stars and the galaxy’s characteristic dust lane in close to "true color".
Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)/WFI (Optical); MPIfR/ESO/APEX/A.Weiss et al. (Submillimeter); NASA/CXC/CfA/R.Kraft et al. (X-ray)
Centaurus A is our nearest giant galaxy, at a distance of about 13 million light-years in the southern constellation of Centaurus, and as such, it is one of the most extensively studied objects in the southern sky. It is an elliptical galaxy, currently merging with a companion spiral galaxy, resulting in areas of intense star formation and making it one of the most spectacular objects in the sky.
Distance:13 million light years
Centaurus A hosts a very active and highly luminous central region, caused by the presence of a supermassive black hole with a mass of about 100 million solar masses (see eso0109), and is the source of strong radio and X-ray emission. Thick dust layers almost completely obscure the galaxy's center.
This image is based on data acquired with the 1.5-meter Danish telescope at the European Southern Observatory’s La Silla Observatory in Chile, through three filters (B, V, R).
Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)/IDA/Danish 1.5 m/R. Gendler, J.-E. Ovaldsen & S. Guisard (ESO)
Centaurus A, also known as NGC 5128, is well known for its dramatic dusty lanes of dark material. Hubble’s new observations, using its most advanced instrument, the Wide Field Camera 3, are the most detailed ever made of this galaxy. They have been combined here in a multi-wavelength image which reveals never-before-seen detail in the dusty portion of the galaxy.
As well as features in the visible spectrum, this composite shows ultraviolet light, which comes from young stars, and near-infrared light, which lets us glimpse some of the detail otherwise obscured by the dust.
Credit: NASA, European Space Agency, and the Hubble Heritage (Space Telescope Science Institute/Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration
Acknowledgment: R. O’Connell (University of Virginia) and the WFC3 Scientific Oversight Committee
This video zoom sequence starts with a broad view of the Milky Way. We close in on a region not far from the plane of a the galaxy and can soon see a strange fuzz with a dark band across it. This is the famous peculiar radio galaxy Centaurus A. The final view shows a very detailed image from the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile.
Distance:13 million light years
Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)/Nick Risinger
This FORS2 image of Centaurus A, also known as NGC 5128, is an example of how frontier science can be combined with esthetic aspects. This galaxy is a most interesting object for the present attempts to understand active galaxies. It is being investigated by means of observations in all spectral regions, from radio via infrared and optical wavelengths to X- and gamma-rays. It is one of the most extensively studied objects in the southern sky. FORS2, with its large field-of-view and excellent optical resolution, makes it possible to study the global context of the active region in Centaurus A in great detail. Note for instance the great number of massive and luminous blue stars that are well resolved individually, in the upper right and lower left.
Distance:13 million light years
Centaurus A is one of the foremost examples of a radio-loud active galactic nucleus (AGN). On images obtained at optical wavelengths, thick dust layers almost completely obscure the galaxy's center. This structure was first reported by Sir John Herschel in 1847. Until 1949, NGC 5128 was thought to be a strange object in the Milky Way, but it was then identified as a powerful radio galaxy and designated Centaurus A. The distance is about 10-13 million light-years (3-4 Mpc) and the apparent visual magnitude is about 8, or 5 times too faint to be seen with the unaided eye.There is strong evidence that Centaurus A is a merger of an elliptical with a spiral galaxy, since elliptical galaxies would not have had enough dust and gas to form the young, blue stars seen along the edges of the dust lane. The core of Centaurus A is the smallest known extragalactic radio source, only 10 light-days across. A jet of high-energy particles from this center is observed in radio and X-ray images. The core probably contains a supermassive black hole with a mass of about 100 million solar masses.
This image is a composite of three exposures in B (300 sec exposure, image quality 0.60 arcsec; here rendered in blue color), V (240 sec, 0.60 arcsec; green) and R (240 sec, 0.55 arcsec; red).
This picture of the spiral galaxy NGC 3621 was taken using the Wide Field Imager (WFI) at the European Southern Observatory’s La Silla Observatory in Chile. NGC 3621 is about 22 million light-years away in the constellation of Hydra (The Sea Snake). It is comparatively bright and can be well seen in moderate-sized telescopes.
The data from the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile used to make this image were selected from the ESO archive by Joe DePasquale as part of the Hidden Treasures competition.
Distance:22 million light years
Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO) and Joe DePasquale
Travel 22 million light years to spiral galaxy NGC 3621 in less than 50 seconds!
This zoom sequence starts with a view of the southern parts of the Milky Way. As we zoom in we can see the spiral galaxy NGC 3621, lying about 22 million light-years from us. The final detailed view shows a new image from the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope at ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile. The data used to make this image were selected from the European Southern Observatory archive by Joe DePasquale as part of the Hidden Treasures competition.
Galaxy NGC 3621: Full of Surprises & Three Black Holes | ESO
This image, from the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), shows a truly remarkable galaxy known as NGC 3621. To begin with, it is a pure-disc galaxy. Like other spirals, it has a flat disc permeated by dark lanes of material and with prominent spiral arms where young stars are forming in clusters (the blue dots seen in the image). But while most spiral galaxies have a central bulge—a large group of old stars packed in a compact, spheroidal region—NGC 3621 does not. In this image, it is clear that there is simply a brightening to the center, but no actual bulge.
Distance:22 million light years
NGC 3621 is also interesting as it is believed to have an active supermassive black hole at its center that is engulfing matter and producing radiation. This is somewhat unusual because most of these so-called active galactic nuclei exist in galaxies with prominent bulges. In this particular case, the supermassive black hole is thought to have a relatively small mass, of around 20,000 times that of the Sun.
Another interesting feature is that there are also thought to be two smaller black holes, with masses of a few thousand times that of the Sun, near the nucleus of the galaxy. Therefore, NGC 3621 is an extremely interesting object which, despite not having a central bulge, has a system of three black holes in its central region.
This galaxy is located in the constellation of Hydra (The Sea Snake) and can be seen with a moderate-sized telescope. This image, taken using B, V, and I filters with the FORS1 instrument on the powerful Very Large Telescope (VLT), shows striking detail in this odd object and also reveals a multitude of background galaxies. A number of bright foreground stars that belong to our own Milky Way are also visible.
New Delhi, Capital of India, at Night | International Space Station
Night image of the city of New Delhi, capital of India, as seen by European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti aboard the International Space Station for her Minerva Mission.
Expedition 67 Crew
Commander Oleg Artemyev (Russia)
Roscosmos Flight Engineers: Denis Matveev and Sergey Korsakov (Russia)
NASA Flight Engineers: Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines, Jessica Watkins (USA)
European Space Agency (ESA) Flight Engineer: Samantha Cristoforetti (Italy)
An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada. The ISS has been the most politically complex space exploration program ever undertaken.
Learn more about the important research being operated on Station:
Travel 232 million light-years to galaxy UGC 2885!
This video zooms into the gigantic galaxy known as UGC 2885, which may just be the largest one in the local universe. It is 2.5 times wider than our Milky Way and contains 10 times as many stars. This galaxy is 232 million light-years away, located in the northern constellation of Perseus.
Credit: NASA, European Space Agency (ESA), Digitized Sky Survey, Nick Risinger
Galaxy UGC 2885 may be the largest one in the local universe. It is 2.5 times wider than our Milky Way and contains 10 times as many stars. This galaxy is 232 million light-years away, located in the northern constellation of Perseus.
Credit: NASA, European Space Agency (ESA), and B. Holwerda (University of Louisville).
Wide field image, based on data from Digitized Sky Survey 2, shows the Small Magellanic Cloud galaxy and is centered on the star-forming region NGC 346.
Distance:7 million light years
Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)/Digitized Sky Survey 2
The exquisite sharpness of the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope has plucked out an underlying population of infant stars embedded in the nebula NGC 346 that are still forming from gravitationally collapsing gas clouds. They have not yet ignited their hydrogen fuel to sustain nuclear fusion. The smallest of these infant stars is only half the mass of our Sun.
Distance:200,000 light years
Credit: NASA, European Space Agency (ESA) and A. Nota (STScI/ESA)
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