This featured galaxy, Centaurus A, is set against a dark background dotted with distant galaxies and stars.Ĭentaurus A has a glowing, pale yellow circle at its center. This composite image depicts a large galaxy with a brilliant glowing core, encircled by a ring of gas and dust. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory's Chandra X-ray Center controls science operations from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center manages the Chandra program. More insights are to come as scientists analyze the data.Ĭen A is found 12 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Centaurus and represents the fifth brightest galaxy in the sky. So far, scientists have not detected X-ray polarization at Cen A, indicating that particles much heavier than electrons, such as protons, are not producing the X-rays. This specialized measurement is helping scientists study how particles become accelerated to high energies and speeds - nearly the speed of light - at extreme cosmic objects like this one.Īt Cen A, researchers using IXPE seek to understand what causes the X-ray emission in the jets. IXPE is specialized to look at a property of X-ray light called polarization, which relates to the organization of electromagnetic waves. With IXPE, which launched in 2021, scientists can understand the mysteries of this object in a new way. Blue shows X-ray light captured by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, orange represents X-rays detected by NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) satellite, and optical light seen by the European Southern Observatory in Chile is colored white and gray.Ĭen A has been studied extensively since the launch of Chandra in 1999. Also visible is a dust lane, wrapping around the middle of the galaxy, which may have resulted from a collision with a smaller galaxy millions of years ago.Ĭolors in this image have been chosen to reflect the sources of data. The jet shown at the upper left of this image extends for about 13,000 light-years away from the black hole. In the center of this galaxy is a supermassive black hole feeding off the gas and dust encircling it, and large jets of high-energy particles and other material spewing out. The galaxy Centaurus A (Cen A) shines bright in this image combining data from multiple observatories.
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