Cen A Radio Optical Gamma Composite

NASA release April 1, 2010

It takes the addition of radio data (orange) to fully appreciate the scale of Cen A's giant radio-emitting lobes, which stretch more than 1.4 million light-years. Gamma-rays from Fermi's Large Area Telescope (purple) and an image of the galaxy in visible light are also included in this composite.

Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration, Capella Observatory, and Ilana Feain, Tim Cornwell, and Ron Ekers (CSIRO/ATNF), R. Morganti (ASTRON), and N. Junkes (MPIfR)

To learn more about these images go to: www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/GLAST/news/smokestack-plumes.html

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center is home to the nation's largest organization of combined scientists, engineers and technologists that build spacecraft, instruments and new technology to study the Earth, the sun, our solar system, and the universe.