Chandra Release - January 09, 2008

Visual Description: Centaurus A

The image features an active galaxy named Centaurus A in X-ray light. The dominant colors in this X-ray image are red-orange, yellow and green. The image was made from an ultra-deep look at the galaxy Centaurus A, equivalent to more than seven days of continuous Chandra observations. Centaurus A is the nearest galaxy to Earth that contains a supermassive black hole actively powering a jet.  A prominent X-ray jet extending for 13,000 light years points to the upper left in the image, with a shorter "counterjet" aimed in the opposite direction.   The structure of the image overall has a slight dumbbell shape with a large swath of material cutting across the center in two strips.  Opposing jets of high-energy particles extend to the outer reaches of the galaxy, and numerous smaller black holes in binary star systems are sprinkled around. Knot-like features in the jets detected in the Chandra image show where the acceleration of particles to high energies is currently occurring, and provide important clues to understanding the process that accelerates the electrons to near-light speeds. The inner part of the X-ray jet close to the black hole is dominated by these knots of X-ray emission, which probably come from shock waves -- akin to sonic booms -- caused by the jet. Farther from the black hole there is more diffuse X-ray emission in the jet. Hundreds of point-like sources are also seen in the Chandra image. Many of these are X-ray binaries that contain a stellar-mass black hole and a companion star in orbit around one another. Determining the population and properties of these black holes should help scientists better understand the evolution of massive stars and the formation of black holes.