The Violent, Ghostly Center of Centaurus A —The Milky Way’s Giant Elliptical Neighbor

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Centaurus A is the nearest giant, elliptical galaxy to the Milky Way, at a distance of about 11 million light-years.  This beautiful and spectacular appearance is due to an opaque dust lane that covers the central part of the galaxy. This dust is thought to be the remains of a cosmic merger between a giant elliptical galaxy and a smaller spiral galaxy full of dust that was swallowed up 200 to 700 years ago.

The central region of the image reveals the parallelogram-shaped ghostly remains of the smaller galaxy, the contents of which appear to be churning inside Centaurus A’s core, likely triggering new generations of stars.

(via dailygalaxy)