NGC 5128 Centaurus A is situated 13 million light years from here. The galaxy is a giant elliptical galaxy and is the closest of its type to our galaxy. Centaurus A is a source of powerful radio emissions. It is triaxial in form and has a thin warped disk that hosts large quantities of molecular gas and star forming regions.
NGC 5128 is peculiar for an Elliptical galaxy due to its broad and patchy equatorial dark band. The band bisects the almost circular bright central part of the galaxy. This has resulted in NGC 5128 being sometimes also classified as a polar ring galaxy even though it lacks several of the characteristics common to polar ring galaxies.
Of note in this image are the striking Hydrogen Alpha jets emanating from the galaxy. There are also x ray jets that are outside of the visible spectrum but have been shown in other images using specialized camera’s.
Imaged on our PlaneWave CDK 1000 and CDK 700 at Observatorio El Sauce, Chile, in LRGB and Hydrogen Alpha.
Image Processing: Mike Selby
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