November 28, 2016 - Turn Up The Radio
Turn Up The Radio The fifth-brightest galaxy in the sky and the closest radio galaxy to our Milky Way, Centaurus A (NGC 5128) is over 11 million light-years away from Earth—a long distance in human terms, but cosmically right in our backyard! An actively-feeding supermassive black hole at the heart of this elliptical galaxy is responsible for enormous jets of superheated material that shine brightly in X-ray wavelengths. As the jets fire out tens of thousands of light-years into space, they encounter clouds of gas and dust, compressing them and inciting the formation of new stars. The hallmark feature of Centaurus A—a thick curved belt of dust that obscures its central region—is thought to be a remnant of a collision between it and a smaller barred spiral galaxy several hundred million years ago.
Image credit: X-ray: NASA / CXC / SAO; Optical: Detlef Hartmann; Infrared: NASA / JPL-Caltech
Weekly Calendar
November 28 - December 4, 2016
Holidays - Sky Events - Space History
Monday 28
1964: Mariner 4 launched
1983: STS-9 Columbia launched
Tuesday 29
New Moon 7:18 AM ET
Juno in conjunction with Sun
1967: First Australian satellite launched
Wednesday 30
Mercury 7° south of Moon
1954: Elizabeth Hodges bruised by a ten-pound meteorite in Alabama
2000: STS-97 Endeavour launched
Thursday 1
1957: Ballistic shape of Mercury spacecraft proposed by Max Faget
2013: Chang'e-3 spacecraft launched to Moon
Friday 2
Vesta appears stationary
1974: Pioneer 11 closest approach to Jupiter during flyby
1988: STS-27 Atlantis launched
1990: STS-35 Columbia launched on Astro-1 mission
1992: STS-53 Discovery launched
1993: STS-61 Endeavour launched
1995: SOHO launched
Saturday 3
Venus 6° south of Moon
1973: Pioneer 10 closest approach to Jupiter during flyby
2014: Hayabusa 2 launched on asteroid sample return mission
Sunday 4
1639: First transit of Venus observed
1965: Gemini VII launched
1978: Pioneer-Venus 1 orbiter arrives in orbit around Venus
1996: Mars Pathfinder launched
1998: STS-88 Endeavour launched