While not as intriguing as this galactic question mark, peering into the heart of galaxy Centaurus A is just as mysterious. This galaxy is located 10 million light-years form Earth and at the center of Centaurus A lies a supermassive black hole with a mass of 55 million solar masses.
Centaurus A was first discovered in 1826 by a Scottish astronomer named James Dunlop from his home in Parramatta, New South Wales, Australia. The elliptical galaxy, also known as NGC 5128, is currently one of the closest known radio galaxies to Earth, so its active galactic nucleus has been extensively studied by astronomers.
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A dark brown swathe of dust and gas cuts diagonally across the image, from the lower left to the upper right, interspersed with bright blue patches of stars. It’s surrounded by glowing orange material, also interspersed with stars and dark dust. A bright yellow star with diffraction spikes is visible at the upper right of the image,” said the NASA Hubble Mission Team.
