{"id":556077,"date":"2026-03-31T11:58:25","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T11:58:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/556077\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T11:58:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T11:58:25","slug":"2026-march-30-peculiar-elliptical-galaxy-centaurus-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/556077\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 March 30 \u2013 Peculiar Elliptical Galaxy Centaurus A"},"content":{"rendered":"

APOD: 2026 March 30 \u2013 Peculiar Elliptical Galaxy Centaurus A <\/p>\n

Discover the cosmos!<\/a>
\nEach day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.\n<\/p>\n

2026 March 30
\n

\n\"A<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

Peculiar Elliptical Galaxy Centaurus A
Image Credit & Copyright:
\nSADR Observatory<\/a> Team: <\/p>\n

J-C Dalouzy<\/a>,
\nP. Bazart, M. Dherb\u00e9court, C. Humbert, G. Leroy,
\nJ-P Qu\u00e9au, H. Talbot, & E. Valin<\/p>\n

Explanation:
\nWhat’s happened to the center of this galaxy? <\/p>\n

Dramatic dust<\/a> lanes run across the center of unusual elliptical galaxy
\nCentaurus A<\/a>.<\/p>\n

These dust lanes are so thick they almost completely obscure the
\ngalaxy’s center<\/a> in
\nvisible light<\/a>. <\/p>\n

This is particularly unusual as
\nCen A<\/a>‘s
\nolder stars and oval shape are characteristic of a giant
\nelliptical galaxy<\/a>, a galaxy type typically low in dark dust. <\/p>\n

Pictured in
\nthis deep image<\/a>
\nis a complex network of foreground gas and dust, as well as
\nshells of dim stars<\/a> and a
\njet<\/a> projecting to the upper right. <\/p>\n

Also known as NGC 5128,
\nCen A<\/a> is surely the result of a
\ngalactic collision<\/a> where many young dust-creating stars were formed. <\/p>\n

However, details of the creation of Cen A’s unusually
\nactive center<\/a> and iconic central dust lanes are still
\nbeing researched<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Cen A lies only 13 million
\nlight years<\/a> away, making it the
\nclosest active galaxy<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Jigsaw Galaxy:
\nAstronomy Puzzle of the Day<\/a>
Tomorrow’s picture: titanian trenches<\/a> <\/p>\n

<<\/a>
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\n Authors & editors:
\nRobert Nemiroff<\/a>
\n(MTU<\/a>) &
\nJerry Bonnell<\/a> (UMCP<\/a>)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn
\nSpecific rights apply<\/a>.
NASA Web Privacy<\/a>,
\nAccessibility<\/a>,
\nNotices<\/a>;
A service of:
\nASD<\/a> at
\nNASA<\/a> \/
\nGSFC<\/a>,
\n
NASA Science Activation<\/a>
\n
& Michigan Tech. U.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"APOD: 2026 March 30 \u2013 Peculiar Elliptical Galaxy Centaurus A Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556078,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[247028,34021,247029,79,193],"class_list":{"0":"post-556077","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-cen-a","9":"tag-elliptical-galaxy","10":"tag-galaxy-collision","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-space"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}