A giant galaxy

Eso_cena_1024

eso_cena December 3rd, 2009

Credit: ESO/IDA/Danish 1.5 m/R. Gendler, J.-E. Ovaldsen & S. Guisard (www.eso.org/~sguisard) (ESO)

Centaurus A is our nearest giant galaxy, at a distance of about 13 million light-years in the southern constellation of Centaurus, and as such, it is one of the most extensively studied objects in the southern sky. It is an elliptical galaxy, currently merging with a companion spiral galaxy, resulting in areas of intense star formation and making it one of the most spectacular objects in the sky. Centaurus A hosts a very active and highly luminous central region, caused by the presence of a supermassive black hole with a mass of about 100 million solar masses (see eso0109), and is the source of strong radio and X-ray emission. Thick dust layers almost completely obscure the galaxy's centre. This image is based on data acquired with the 1.5-metre Danish telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile, through three filters (B, V, R).

Provider: European Southern Observatory

Image Source: https://www.eso.org/public/images/cena/

Curator: European Southern Observatory, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

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Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
Centaurus A NGC 5128
Subject - Local Universe
Galaxy
Galaxy > Type > Elliptical
Eso_cena_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 13h 25m 27.7s
DEC = -43° 1’ 9.5”
Orientation
North is 44.8° CW
Field of View
9.6 x 7.4 arcminutes
Constellation
Centaurus

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Red ESO-Danish-1.54m (DFOSC) Optical (R) 648.87 nm
Green ESO-Danish-1.54m (DFOSC) Optical (V) 544.8 nm
Blue ESO-Danish-1.54m (DFOSC) Optical (B) 433.57 nm
Spectrum_base
Red
Green
Blue
Eso_cena_1280
×
ID
cena
Subject Category
C.5   C.5.1.4  
Subject Name
Centaurus A, NGC 5128
Credits
ESO/IDA/Danish 1.5 m/R. Gendler, J.-E. Ovaldsen & S. Guisard (www.eso.org/~sguisard) (ESO)
Release Date
2009-12-03T23:20:37
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.eso.org/public/images/cena/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Danish 1.54-metre telescope, Danish 1.54-metre telescope, Danish 1.54-metre telescope
Instrument
DFOSC, DFOSC, DFOSC
Color Assignment
Red, Green, Blue
Band
Optical, Optical, Optical
Bandpass
R, V, B
Central Wavelength
648.87, 544.80, 433.57
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
201.36542, -43.019319
Reference Dimension
1460.0, 1130.0
Reference Pixel
717.521384475, 537.159595696
Scale
-0.00010982324, 0.00010982324
Rotation
-44.84481270043
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
European Southern Observatory
URL
http://www.eso.org/
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2
City
Garching bei München
State/Province
Postal Code
D-85748
Country
Germany
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
European Southern Observatory
Publisher ID
eso
Resource ID
cena
Metadata Date
2009-06-02T14:24:29+02:00
Metadata Version
1.1
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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