Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Centaurus (Cen)  ·  Contains:  NGC 5128
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NGC 5128 - the exploding hamburger of Centaurus, Andrew Lockwood
NGC 5128 - the exploding hamburger of Centaurus
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NGC 5128 - the exploding hamburger of Centaurus

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NGC 5128 - the exploding hamburger of Centaurus, Andrew Lockwood
NGC 5128 - the exploding hamburger of Centaurus
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NGC 5128 - the exploding hamburger of Centaurus

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Description

Chaos and destruction 15 million light years away (and ago!). This is NGC 5128, the fifth brightest galaxy in the sky. It is also called Centaurus A, as it is the brightest radio source in the constellation of the Centaur. The dark lane crossing the centre of the elliptical galaxy is though to be the remnants of a spiral galaxy that has crashed through the middle of a large elliptical galaxy. Radio astronomers have identified two jets of material thousands of light years long being spat out at right angles to the dark band, which conceals a 55 million solar mass black hole. These jets contain matter traveling at half the speed of light (quasars anyone??). The intense blue colour just above the right hand side of the dark lane is typical of starburst regions, which is the creation of millions of bright young stars caused by the ongoing collision.

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    NGC 5128 - the exploding hamburger of Centaurus, Andrew Lockwood
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    NGC 5128 - the exploding hamburger of Centaurus, Andrew Lockwood
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NGC 5128 - the exploding hamburger of Centaurus, Andrew Lockwood

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