¿ Astronomy Picture of the Day [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2021 January 17 [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available. Jets from Unusual Galaxy Centaurus A Image Credit: [3]ESO/[4]WFI (visible); [5]MPIfR/[6]ESO/[7]APEX/A. Weiss et al. (microwave); [8]NASA/[9]CXC/[10]CfA/R. Kraft et al. (X-ray) Explanation: The jets emanating from [11]Centaurus A are over a million light years long. These jets of streaming [12]plasma, expelled by a giant black hole in the center of this spiral galaxy, light up this composite image of [13]Cen A. Exactly how the [14]central black hole expels infalling matter remains unknown. After clearing the galaxy, however, [15]the jets inflate large [16]radio bubbles that likely glow for millions of years. If energized by a passing gas cloud, the radio bubbles can even light up again [17]after billions of years. [18]X-ray light is depicted in the [19]featured composite image in blue, while [20]microwave [21]light is colored orange. The [22]base of the jet in [23]radio light shows [24]details of the innermost light year of the [25]central jet. Tomorrow's picture: brain star __________________________________________________________________ [26]< | [27]Archive | [28]Submissions | [29]Index | [30]Search | [31]Calendar | [32]RSS | [33]Education | [34]About APOD | [35]Discuss | [36]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [37]Robert Nemiroff ([38]MTU) & [39]Jerry Bonnell ([40]UMCP) NASA Official: Phillip Newman [41]Specific rights apply. [42]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: [43]ASD at [44]NASA / [45]GSFC & [46]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2101/CenAjets_EsoNasa_1280.jpg 3. https://www.eso.org/public/ 4. https://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/lasilla/mpg22/wfi/ 5. https://www.mpifr-bonn.mpg.de/ 6. https://www.eso.org/public/ 7. http://www.apex-telescope.org/ns/ 8. https://www.nasa.gov/ 9. https://cxc.harvard.edu/ 10. https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/ 11. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110413.html 12. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_(physics) 13. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap060704.html 14. https://youtu.be/RntR13AIl1E 15. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap030501.html 16. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap050628.html 17. https://www.dogster.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/A-bored-sad-or-sleepy-dog-on-a-couch.jpg 18. https://chandra.harvard.edu/xray_astro/xrays.html 19. https://www.nasa.gov/topics/universe/features/radio-particle-jets.html 20. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwave_oven#History 21. https://science.nasa.gov/ems/06_microwaves 22. http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/550300main_Cen_A_inner_jet_English_labels.jpg 23. https://science.nasa.gov/ems/05_radiowaves 24. https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2011A%26A...530L..11M/abstract 25. https://youtu.be/bOjCrVQusYI 26. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210116.html 27. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 28. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 29. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 30. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 31. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 32. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss 33. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 34. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 35. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=210117 36. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210118.html 37. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 38. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 39. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 40. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 41. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 42. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 43. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 44. https://www.nasa.gov/ 45. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 46. http://www.mtu.edu/