Centaurus A<\/a> is a giant galaxy located in the southern constellation of Centaurus.<\/p>\nAlso known as NGC 5128, LEDA 46957, ESO 270-9, and Caldwell 7, the galaxy is one of the brightest objects in the southern hemisphere night sky.<\/p>\n
Centaurus A was discovered on April 29, 1826 by the Scottish astronomer James Dunlop.<\/p>\n
At a distance of 13 million light-years, it is the closest active galactic nucleus to us.<\/p>\n
Astronomers theorize that what was originally an elliptical galaxy collided with a relatively smaller spiral galaxy, giving it the peculiar shape we see now.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt Centaurus A\u2019s core sits a supermassive black hole actively feeding on surrounding material,\u201d the Webb astronomers said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs it does, the black hole launches powerful jets and releases enormous amounts of energy, shaping the galaxy around it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the same time, Centaurus A bears the scars of a dramatic past: a major collision with another galaxy roughly two billion years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe aftermath of that merger is still visible today in its unusual structure and ongoing star formation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Visible light observations from the NASA\/ESA Hubble Space Telescope could not reveal the central region of Centaurus A where dust blocked the view, while NASA\u2019s retired Spitzer Space Telescope revealed large scale structures in the infrared without resolving individual stars.<\/p>\n
Now, Webb brings both clarity and depth, exposing the galaxy\u2019s inner workings star by star.<\/p>\n
\u201cWebb\u2019s mid-infrared vision highlights the galaxy\u2019s rich dust structures, which glow in intricate shapes that surprise and even perplex astronomers,\u201d the researchers said.<\/p>\n
\u201cA warped, parallelogram-like band cuts across the galaxy\u2019s center, while wisps of material stretch outward like cosmic clouds.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAn \u2018S\u2019 shaped feature, most notable in the image from Webb\u2019s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument), is also unusual and invites questions that need further study to answer. What created this shape? How does the black hole influence it? Is it influenced by merger-induced star formation?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMany of the glowing red points in the MIRI image are dust-rich stars or stellar nurseries, where aging stars are shedding material back into space or new stars are forming.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis dust is the raw ingredient for future generations of stars and planets, making it central to the ongoing life cycle of the galaxy.\u201d<\/p>\n
With Webb\u2019s high resolution, the scientists can now study Centaurus A star by star, even in its long-obscured central region.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat looks \u2018grainy\u2019 in the image from Webb, most obvious in the combined MIRI and NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) view, is actually a densely packed field of individual stars, together carrying information about the galaxy\u2019s past,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith Webb\u2019s view of Centaurus A, it becomes a case of galactic archaeology.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEach star revealed helps to reconstruct when different events happened: when older stars first formed, when activity slowed down, a burst of star formation during the collision, and stars born from gas stirred in its aftermath.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTogether, they form a timeline of the galaxy\u2019s evolution.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Celebrating four years of science, the NASA\/ESA\/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has pierced the thick dust of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":516303,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[256348,3320,45606,1022,5434,43873,3323,111,139,69,147,2737,3329],"class_list":["post-516302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-centaurus-a","tag-csa","tag-dust","tag-esa","tag-galaxy","tag-ir","tag-nasa","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-star","tag-webb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=516302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/516303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"The](\"https:\/\/cdn.sci.news\/images\/enlarge13\/image_14901e-Centaurus-A.jpg\")
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