Chandra, Infrared, and Radio Images of NGC 4696
QuickTime
MPEG
This sequence of images shows NGC 4696, the elliptical galaxy at the
center of the Centaurus galaxy cluster. At the galaxy's center is a
supermassive black hole, one of nine black holes studied recently using
NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. An infrared image, in green, reveals
the stars in the elliptical galaxy. Next, the blue radio image shows
high-energy jets generated by the black hole. Finally, Chandra's X-ray
image in red traces hot gas located around the center of the galaxy.
Enormous cavities in this gas were created by jets from the black hole.
[Runtime: 0:16]
View Still Images
(Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Stanford U./S.Allen et al.; IR: NASA/ESA/McMaster Univ./W.Harris; Radio: NRAO/AUI/NSF/G.Taylor)