December 11, 2024

The center of the Centaurus galaxy A and the source C4 (Image NASA/CXC/SAO/D. Bogensberger et al.; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk)

An article published in the journal “The Astrophysical Journal” reports the results of X-ray observations of the jets emitted by the supermassive black hole at the center of the Centaurus A galaxy. A team of researchers used NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory to find a V-shaped structure that indicates that one of the jets hit something whose nature is uncertain. Only Chandra’s X-ray observations revealed that unusual structure, cataloged as C4, while many other instruments, especially radio telescopes, had never shown such anomalies.