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Thursday, October 28, 2010

Photo: "Death Star" Galaxy Found Blasting Smaller Neighbor


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A composite image (top) shows a never-before-seen spectacle: a "Death Star" galaxy blasting a nearby neighbor with a powerful jet from a supermassive black hole.

The image combines x-ray data from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory (purple), optical and ultraviolet data from the Hubble Space Telescope (red and orange), and radio emission data from the Very Large Array and MERLIN array (blue).

An artist's illustration (bottom) shows another view of the spectacle.

Top image by x-ray: NASA/CXC/CfA/D.Evans et al.; optical/UV: NASA/STScI; radio: NSF/VLA/CfA/D.Evans et al., STFC/JBO/MERLIN); bottom image by NASA/CXC/M. Weiss