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The Shells and Jets of Galaxy Centaurus A

Centaurus A, cataloged as NGC 5128, is the closest active galaxy to Earth, only 12 million light-years distant. Forged in a collision of two otherwise normal galaxies, Centaurus A shows several distinctive features. These include a dark dust lane across its center, outer shells of stars and gas, and jets of particles shooting out from a supermassive black hole at its center. This image captures all of these in a composite series of visible light images.