Above and Beyond: Centaurus A in Infrared Light

 

 

Produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute’s Office of Public Outreach

 

All images, illustrations, and videos courtesy of NASA except:

 

·       Milky Way panorama courtesy of ESO/S. Brunier

·       Taurus constellation drawing from Firmamentum Sobiescianum sive Uranographia by Johannes Hevelius, courtesy of the United States Naval Observatory

·       Andromeda Galaxy image courtesy of Bill Schoening, Vanessa Harvey/REU program/NOAO/AURA/NSF

·       Redshift animation courtesy of ESO

·       Centaurus A visible-light images courtesy of ESO

 

 

Written by Tracy Vogel

Designed by Marc Lussier

Music courtesy of Associated Production Music

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A red, white, and black elliptical galaxy.

 

Text, Centaurus A is an elliptical galaxy.

 

Elliptical galaxies take their name from their rounded shape.

 

An orange, white, and black elliptical galaxy.

 

Text, They are thought to form from merging galaxies.

 

Text, VISIBLE LIGHT. Infrared images reveal a spiral galaxy that was digested by Centaurus A. INFRARED LIGHT.

 

Centaurus A in infrared is an oblong galaxy of red dust with a bright red spiral galaxy in its center.

 

Text, Infrared vision can see through Centaurus A's thick dust lanes...

 

to the galactic remnant within.