NGC5128 is one of the closest radio galaxies to Earth, and as a result, has been studied extensively in recent years. I don't pretend to understand any of what has been written about it (I'm a photographer, not an astrophysicist), but apparently the supermassive black hole (55 million solar masses) at the center of the galaxy emits a relativistic jet. X-rays produced by the jet ionize surrounding gasses, producing the red jet you see in this image. There are 3 parts to this jet. In my image you can clearly see the A jet, which is closest to the center right at the edge of the outer shell, the B jet is visible at the 11:00 position from the A jet, and the C jet is BARELY visible, coming off to the left at a right angle to the other two.
I spent a great deal of time trying to make these jets visible. In the end, this is the best that my skills could produce. I thank Connor Matherne (@mathereconnor) for including the article in his post of this object that detailed this discovery. I only understood about 2% of what I read, but it at least showed me what I should be looking for. Here is the link if you are interested.
https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/474/3/4056/4609363
Comments