NGC 4696 is an elliptical galaxy 154 million light years away in Centaurus. It is the brightest galaxy in the Centaurus cluster.
Faint filaments are visible in the central core area where a massive black hole is located. It is thought the black hole outputs energy that heats surrounding gas, pushing out cooler filaments of gas and dust. There is no apparent star formation taking place. There are several faint shell structures which are also evident.
There is an excellent highly detailed Hubble image of this area of NGC 4696. The black hole region was also imaged and studied by Chandra X ray observatory. The galaxy is estimated to span 165,000 light years.
Imaged in LRGB and H alpha on our Planewave CDK 1000 at Observatorio El Sauce, Chile.
Image Processing: Mike Selby and Mark Hanson