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Home , Centaurus, Centaurus A

Galaxy A Feeding a Definitions Astronomers got an unprecedented Black Hole: A region containing a look at a black hole hidden at the huge amount mass compacted into an center of nearby giant , extremely small volume, making its Centaurus A (NGC 5128). The black SPACE TELESCOPE gravitational pull so strong that nothing hole contains the mass of perhaps a SCIENCE INSTITUTE european space agency —not even light—can escape its grasp. billion compacted into a small Operated for NASA by AURA region of space not much larger than : A geometric pattern our . Astronomers think of bright stars that appear grouped in it is feeding on the fresh remains of a the sky. Ancient astronomers named small that had collided them after gods, heroes, animals, and into the peculiarly shaped elliptical mythological beings. millions of years ago. Scientists are not sure whether the black hole always Elliptical Galaxy: A galaxy having an existed or whether it is the product of elliptical or near-spherical shape. a merger between two smaller black holes that once resided in two once- : Electromagnetic radiation separate . with slightly longer wavelengths and slightly smaller frequencies. Unlike Cauldron of Starbirth visible light, dust and gas do not absorb While rare today, galactic collisions infrared radiation. were common in the early universe. When the two galaxies collided, the Fast Facts shock of the crash compressed interstellar gas and ignited a flurry Location of formation. In the image on the Centaurus A, also known as NGC 5128, front, blue clusters of newborn stars can be seen in the southern sky in the are clearly resolved along the edge of a constellation Centaurus dark dust belt girdling the galaxy. This dust belt is believed to be the remains Distance from of the smaller spiral galaxy. 10 million light-years

The Inside Story Galaxy Type Using Hubble’s infrared vision, Large active elliptical that collided with a astronomers penetrated the wall of smaller companion spiral dark dust for the first time to see a twisted disk of hot gas swept up in About this image the black hole’s gravitational pull. Electronic Addresses Centaurus A, located relatively nearby The central image on the front is a mosaic of two images taken with the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 on August 1, 1997 and January 10, You can get images and other information at just 10 million light-years away 1998. It shows a dark lane of dust thought to be the remains of a smaller spiral about the Hubble Space Telescope on the from Earth, offers astronomers a galaxy that collided with the larger elliptical galaxy. The surrounding image, from World Wide Web. special laboratory for understanding the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, shows more of the galaxy. Point your browser (Netscape Navigator, the behavior of supermassive black Astronomers used Hubble’s Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer Microsoft Internet Explorer, and others), to URL holes fueled by galaxy collisions. (seen above) to peer past the dust disk to find a ball of hot gas encircling the http://hubble.stsci.edu/ and follow links suspected black hole (inset). from there.

LG-1998-10-013-GSFC / STScI L-98-03