Viewing Centaurus A Like Never Before

Centaurus A — the fifth-brightest galaxy as seen from Earth, is seen in unprecedented detail by astronomers using the Event Horizon Telescope

Zooming into Centaurus A for the most-detailed views yet of this massive galaxy. Image credit: Radboud University; ESO/WFI; MPIfR/ESO/APEX/A. Weiß et al.; NASA/CXC/CfA/R. Kraft et al.; EHT/M. Janßen et al.

Near the core of nearly every galaxy lies a supermassive black hole (SMBH), containing millions or billions as much mass as our Sun.

On 10 April 2019, the first detailed image ever of a black hole was released by astronomers using the Event Horizon Telescope — a global network of radio telescopes. This image revealed details of the supermassive black hole at the center of M87 — a supergiant elliptical galaxy 54 million light years from Earth.

Centaurus A, seen in visible light, using the 0.6-meter CHI-1 Telescope in Chile. Image credit: The Cosmic Companion

Six hours of observations of Centaurus A, an active galaxy just 12 million light years from Earth, conducted in 2017 reveals new information about the SMBH at the center of that family of stars, as well as jets which race away from the center of the galaxy.

“Compared with previous observations, we image the jet of Centaurus A at a tenfold higher frequency and sixteen times sharper resolution and thereby probe sub-lightday structures [details smaller than 26,000,000,000 km]… We find that the source structure of Centaurus A resembles the jet in Messier 87……