Centaurus A (NGC 5128)

Centaurus A (NGC 5128) — galaxy, shown live in Cosmoscope, a real-time 3D map of the universe.

A giant elliptical with a dark dust lane slashed across it — the wreckage of a spiral galaxy it swallowed. Its black hole fires a jet that lights up the radio sky bigger than the full Moon.

Type
Peculiar elliptical / merger
Distance
12.4 million light-years
Nearest
Giant radio galaxy to Earth
Core
A 55-million-solar-mass black hole

Seeing Centaurus A (NGC 5128) in real time

Centaurus A (NGC 5128) is placed at its true position on the sky and at its real measured distance, not as a flat backdrop. Fly out from the Sun in the live 3D view and watch it change from a point of light into structure as you approach, with the scale bar showing just how far out you have travelled.

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