Explanation:
Jets of streaming
plasma
expelled by the central black hole of a massive spiral galaxy
light up this composite image of
Centaurus A.
The jets emanating from
Cen A are over a million light years long.
Exactly how the
central black hole
expels infalling matter is still unknown.
After clearing the galaxy, however,
the jets inflate large
radio bubbles that likely glow for millions of years.
If excited by a passing front, radio bubbles can even light up again after a billion years.
X-ray light is depicted in the
above composite image in blue, while
microwave light is false-colored orange.
The inset image in radio light shows newly imaged,
never seen-before details of the innermost light year of the
central jet.
