Centaurus A

[mmcirvin]

There have been lots of pretty pictures coming from space lately, but my favorite this week was of Centaurus A, one of the most famous radio sources in the sky. It's a giant elliptical galaxy in the process of eating a spiral galaxy, and it looks more or less like this 1998 Hubble picture in visible light: the spiral provides that dark lane of dust.

But recently the Spitzer Space Telescope used infrared light to get a better look at the victim. You can clearly see the spiral structure of the devoured galaxy inside of the elliptical.