Exoplanet Observatory

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Above image combined visible light data from Hubble Space Telescope, X-ray data from Chandra X-ray Observatory and radio data from Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope. Located in the constellation Hercules, the elliptical galaxy in the center of this image seem quite ordinary when Hubble captured it in visible light (colored with red, green and blue; and mostly appear white when combined). However, when imaged by VLA in radio wavelength, colored with light blue, Hercules A galaxy ejects two powerful plasma beams spanning over one million light-years long. These jets are powered by the super giant black hole at the center of the galaxy. Chandra further detected a massive cloud of extremely hot gas surrounding the galaxy in X-ray wavelength, colored here with purple. The gas is heated by the super massive black hole estimated to be 1,000 times more massive than our Milky Way's central black hole.