NASA's Chandra caught a black hole's jet slamming into a mysterious hidden object

Using the deepest X-ray image ever made of Centaurus A, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory found an unusual mark from the galaxy's black hole jet striking an unidentified object — something never seen before in this galaxy. Centaurus A sits 12.4 million light-years from Earth, and its jet, moving at close to the speed of light in certain spots, formed a V-shaped X-ray pattern with arms at least 700 light-years long. The source of the emission, named C4, sits close to the jet's path and had never been detected before. The object being struck remains a mystery, too distant to be seen even by today's most powerful telescopes — though researchers believe it may be a massive star colliding with the jet's particles. Credit: NASA/CXC/SAO/D. Bogensberger et al.; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk