Astronomers have photographed a galaxy relatively close to Earth that has captured its orbits in incredible detail.
SEE GALLERY: 3 IMAGES
The galaxy in front and in the center of the image is Centaurus A, which is more than 12 million light-years from Earth, at a relatively short distance from space. Centaurus A is located in the southern constellation Centaurus and was first discovered in 1826 by Scottish astronomer James Dunlop from his home in Parramatta, New South Wales, Australia. Due to the brightness of the galaxy, it is one of the most studied galaxies in the southern sky.
The supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy is estimated to contain 55 million times the mass of our Sun and also fires rays of matter that are causing a bright source of radio light that astronomers are interpreting. The scratches that are seen encompassing the black hole are made up of dust, which arose from a collision of another galaxy in the past. The researchers used the dark energy camera found at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile to make the image.
Dark Energy Camera
