Centaurus A Is Closest ACTIVE GALAXY. Also: Awesome

Zounds! She’s resounding. Check out  Centaurus A, the closest active galaxy to us. It’s pretty close, too. 11 million light-years. Gather that fucker E.T. into a magical bicycle and I’ll be right there behind you.

NASA:

What’s the closest  active galaxy  to planet Earth? That would be  Centaurus  A, only 11 million light-years distant. Spanning over 60,000 light-years, the peculiar elliptical galaxy is also known  as NGC 5128. Forged in a  collision  of two otherwise normal galaxies, Centaurus A’s fantastic jumble of young blue star clusters, pinkish star forming regions, and imposing dark dust lanes are seen here in remarkable detail.  The colorful galaxy portrait  was recorded under clear Chilean skies at the  Cerro Tololo  Inter-American Observatory. Near the  galaxy’s center, left over cosmic debris is steadily being consumed by a central black hole with a billion times the mass of the Sun. As in other active galaxies, that process likely generates the radio, X-ray, and gamma-ray  energy radiated  by  Centaurus A.

Them black holes. Mowing the living cripes out of anything in its way. I know that when we finally peddle on over to Centaurus, I’m staying way  the fuck away from it. I advise you to do the same.