Centaurus A

A lenticular Galaxy:
The HAMBURGER
 Info About Centaurus A
• It is located 11,000,000 light years away in the
constellation Centaurus. It is gravitationally bound
into a group of galaxies that also contains Messier
83. Its common name, Centaurus A, derives from
the early days of radio astronomy (1940s and
1950s).
• It is one of the most luminous and massive galaxies
known and is a strong source of both radio and X-
ray radiation.
• Astronomers named radio sources by letter (A,B,C),
with "A" designating that it had the strongest
source within it’s given constellation.

 Le n ticu la r G a la xy
• Type of galaxy which is
intermediate between
an elliptical galaxy
and a spiral galaxy .
• Lenticular galaxies are
disc galaxies which
have used up most of
their interstellar
matter. Therefore
have very little
ongoing star
formation and are
composed mostly of
aging stars.
 Discovery
• NGC 5128, or its radio name Centaurus
A, was discovered on August 4, 1826
by James Dunlop at the Parramatta
observatory in Australia
• Centaurus A also was largely ignored
because of the lack of large
optical telescopes in the southern
hemisphere, where this galaxy can
be seen. Astronomers also believed
Centaurus A to be one of those
nebulous, fuzzy objects originally
thought to be in our own galaxy.
• Even Edwin Hubble called it a
nebulous object. Later astronomers
with more powerful telescopes
identified many of these so-called
fuzzy objects as galaxies.
Dunlop
Centaurus A: A Radio Galaxy?

• In 1948, John Bolton,

Gordon Stanley, and
Bruce Slee were the
first astronomers to
identify CentaurusA as
a powerful radio galaxy.
This means that it is
a type of active galaxy
that’s very luminous at
radio wavelengths.
• Radio waves from
Centaurus A were some
of the first to be
linked to an
extragalactic object.

 Baade and Minkowski - 1954

• At Palomar University in California, Walter

Baade and Rudolph Minkowski
confirmed CentaurusA to be a galaxy.
They proposed that the peculiar structure
corresponding to the galaxy was due to a
merge between two galaxies, a giant
elliptical and small spiral.
• It is even sometimes called the "Hamburger
Galaxy" for its dark dust band seen
disecting the galaxy.
 The Black Core of Centaurus
A
• The core of Centaurus A is believed to be a
supermassiveblack hole with a mass of 100
million to as much as a billion Solar-
masses. The core contains one of the
smallest known extragalactic radio
sources, at only 10 light-days across.
• As a result of a galactic collision 200-700
million years ago, the gas and dust of
the small spiral galaxy is being pulled
to the black hole.
• The core spews bi-polar jets of high-energy
particles.

 Obscuring Dust Lane
• In 1986, a supernova was
detected on May 3rd in
the middle of the
south-eastern part of
the obscuring dust
lane. This bright object
was subsequently used
to investigate the
properties of NGC 5128
and it’s dust lane.
• The lane travels straight
through the center of
CentaurusA and
obscures observations
in the visible light
spectrum. However the
ring structure of star
 Infrared Photography of
Centaurus A
• In 1997, Schreier used WFPC2 of the
Hubble Space Telescope to examine the
nucleus and the bright, young stars in
Centaurus A. WFPC2 cannot peer through
the dusty core, so Schreier and
Alessandro Marconi used the Hubble
telescope's Near Infrared Camera and
Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) to
explore the core. The men found a
central, warped disk and a compact
core. Both might have been caused by a
large collision between two galaxies.
Spitzer Space Telescope
• In 2006, the new
Spitzer Space
Telescope was
aimed at
CentaurusA. It
showed
astronomers that
it is indeed an
elliptical galaxy
that consumed a
smaller spiral
galaxy which
twisted it into a
 Stars of Centaurus A
• The bulge of this galaxy is comprised mainly
of evolved red stars. The dusty disk,
however, has been the site of more recent
star formation. Centaurus A is located
approximately 4° north of Omega Centuri,
which is a globular cluster visible with
the naked eye.
• The presence of rings of stars such as the
one seen in Centaurus A are probably not
common among other galaxies, but it’s
possible that they only emerge when two
galaxies collide.
 Works Cited
• “Centaurus A: A Peculiar Galaxy.” Cool Cosmos: Multi
wavelength Astronomy. 14 August 2009. 17
January 2010.
<http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/cosmic_classro
om/mult
wavelength_astronomy/multiwavelength_museum/c
enA.htm >.
• Steinle, Helmut. “Key Events in the Observational
History ofCentaurus A.” Centaurus A. 09 December
2009. 17 January 2010.
<http://www.mpe.mpg.de/~hcs/Cen A/cen-a-
history.html>.
• Wethington, Nicolos. “Ring of Stars in Centaurus A
Uncovered.” Universe Today. 22 November 2009. 17
January 2010.
<http://www.universetoday.com/2009/11/22/ring-of
stars in-centaurus-a-uncovered/>.