by Ann » Fri Oct 04, 2013 12:13 am
geckzilla wrote:Yeah, Centaurus A looks pretty normal in visible light.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NGC_5128_galaxy.jpg
Well, as normal as a recently merged galaxy can look, anyway. There's no indication that the jets are affecting the stars or the dust lanes at all. It looks more like the recent merger it went through affected the jets rather than the other way around.
I've been interested in astronomy since long before astronomers knew all that much about galaxies (or rather, perhaps, before those who knew a lot about galaxies had managed to convince the all the popularizers of astronomy of their views).
So I remember something I read in a book long ago. (The Celestial Handbook?) The author noted that Centaurus A looks very strange, and he wondered if the galaxy is in the process of exploding.
I, too, think that Cen A looks strange, and it does look as if it is exploding! Of course it isn't exploding but merging, like you said, Geckzilla. Visually we see no effects of the black hole, but the galaxy looks plenty strange anyway.
Ann
[quote="geckzilla"]Yeah, Centaurus A looks pretty normal in visible light. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NGC_5128_galaxy.jpg
Well, as normal as a recently merged galaxy can look, anyway. There's no indication that the jets are affecting the stars or the dust lanes at all. It looks more like the recent merger it went through affected the jets rather than the other way around.[/quote]
I've been interested in astronomy since long before astronomers knew all that much about galaxies (or rather, perhaps, before those who knew a lot about galaxies had managed to convince the all the popularizers of astronomy of their views).
So I remember something I read in a book long ago. (The Celestial Handbook?) The author noted that Centaurus A looks very strange, and he wondered if the galaxy is in the process of exploding.
I, too, think that Cen A looks strange, and it does look as if it is exploding! Of course it isn't exploding but merging, like you said, Geckzilla. Visually we see no effects of the black hole, but the galaxy looks plenty strange anyway.
Ann