Centaurus A (NGC 5128) 12h20 CHI-1 Bundle

Hi all!

Centaurus A, also called NGC 5128, is a curious massive elliptical galaxy with a supermassive black hole at its heart.

It is located about 12 million light years from Earth in the constellation Centaurus and has the distinction of being the most powerful radio galaxy in the sky.

Indeed it's apparent size of 25' in visible light is about the size of the full moon, but this size reaches almost 20 times the diameter of the full moon in radio waves!

Astronomers believe that the luminous core, strong radio emissions and jet-like details of Centaurus A are produced by the central black hole whose mass is about 100 million times that of the Sun.

The dusty band is probably the unrecognizable remnant of a spiral galaxy being torn apart by the gravitational pull of the giant elliptical galaxy.

Reddish filaments showing halpha emission from the core extend from the galaxy toward the left corner of the image. These are stellar nurseries containing hot young stars.

Field of view : 32' x 32'

Scale : 0.62"/pixel

L : 18 x 600s

R : 21 x 600s

G : 21 x 600s

B : 19 x 600s

Although Halpha filter exposures would have been ideal to highlight the Halpha jets, im glad i could get them very lightly from the red filter exposures.