The outer filament of Centaurus A as seen by MUSE

© Astron

Some of you may recognise the beautiful radio image of Centaurs A (figure on the right, combination of image from Feain et al. for the outer regions and from Morganti et al. for the inner part) from the wall of the SKA office in Jodrell Bank. This radio galaxy is not only great for decoration, but it is in fact a unique object for studying a number of important but still obscure phenomena.

Radio-loud active galactic nuclei (AGN) are known to inject kinetic energy into the surrounding interstellar medium of their host galaxy via plasma jets. Understanding the impact these flows can have on the host galaxy helps to characterise a crucial phase in their evolution.

Being the closest radio galaxy, Centaurus A is an excellent laboratory in which the physics of the coupling of jet mechanical energy to the surrounding medium may be investigated. About 15 kpc northeast of this galaxy, a particularly complex region is found: the so-called outer filament, where jet-cloud interactions have been thought to occur. In the Daily Image of