The Energetic Jet from Centaurus A

The center of well-studied active galaxy Centaurus A is hidden from the view
of optical telescopes by a cosmic jumble of stars, gas, and dust. But both radio
and x-ray telescopes can trace the remarkable jet of high-energy particles
streaming from the galaxy's core. With Cen A's central region at the lower right,
this composite false-color image shows the radio emission in red and x-rays in blue
over the inner 4,000 light-years of the jet. One of the most detailed images of its
kind, the picture shows how the x-ray and radio emitting sites are related along
the jet, providing a road map to understanding the energetic stream. Extracting its
energy from a supermassive black hole at the galaxy's center, the jet is confined
to a relatively narrow angle and seems to produce most of its x-rays (bluer colors)
at the upper left, farther from the core, where the jet begins to collide with
Centaurus A's denser gas.