The supermassive black hole in the core of a distant galaxy known as
Cygnus A spews jets of gas into space over distances of more than
200,000 light-years. The jets (orange) were imaged by the new
International Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR) Telescope in Europe. The
picture shows how the jets slam into the hot gas surrounding the galaxy
(blue, imaged by NASA's Chandra x-ray space telescope). LOFAR consist
of tens of thousands of small antennas spread out over a few dozen
stations in the Netherlands, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and
Sweden. Observations like these, presented at the 219th meeting of the
American Astronomical Society here, reveal that the nearly-completed
radio telescope is performing well. Later this year, astronomers from
all over the world will be able to use the new observatory.
Credit: (c) J. McKean and M. Wise, ASTRON
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