Chandra Release - August 7, 2002

Visual Description: Centaurus A Arcs

This multipanel image of the active galaxy Centaurus A features one large image up top and four smaller panels below it, with each of those smaller panels depicting a different slice of light. The first main panel is dominated by a large, irregularly circular structure in the center of the image. It is a composite X-ray (blue), radio (pink and green), and optical (orange and yellow) image of the galaxy Centaurus A presenting a galaxy in turmoil. A band of dust and cold gas is bisected at an angle by opposing jets of high-energy particles blasting away from the supermassive black hole in the nucleus. Two large arcs of X-ray emitting hot gas were discovered in the outskirts of the galaxy on a plane perpendicular to the jets.
The arcs appear to be part of a projected ring 25,000 light years in diameter. The size and location of the ring indicate that it may have been produced in a titanic explosion that occurred about ten million years ago.  The panels below the main image split out the kinds of light from left to right: X-ray (blue); optical (yellow-orange); radio continuum (green) and radio 21-cm (pink).