Centaurus A

NGC 5128

The nearest galaxy with an active nucleus, a giant elliptical crossed by a dramatic dust lane and blasting radio jets from its core.

Centaurus A, a elliptical galaxy
PhotographESO/WFI (Optical); MPIfR/ESO/APEX/A.Weiss et al. (Submillimetre); NASA/CXC/CfA/R.Kraft et al. (X-ray) · CC BY 4.0
Elliptical
type · S0
12 million ly
from Earth · measured
94k ly
across
7.2
apparent magnitude

Because its light is 12 million ly from home, you are seeing Centaurus A as it looked roughly 12 million years ago. The photons left before that much of history had passed, and are only now reaching us.

At the centre
Centaurus A Central Black Hole
A supermassive black hole of 55.0 million ☉.
Zoom in →
Nearest galaxies
Small Magellanic CloudIrregular12 million ly
apartLarge Magellanic CloudIrregular12 million ly
apartMilky WayBarred spiral12 million ly
apartAndromedaSpiral15 million ly
apartTriangulumSpiral15 million ly
apartBlack EyeSpiral16 million ly
apart
Worlds in the same direction on the sky→

Source: structural data (position, morphology, brightness, redshift) from OpenNGC (CC BY-SA). Distance from published measurements.

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