Cygnus A

Cygnus A is a powerful radio galaxy about 760 million light-years away, known for twin radio lobes produced by jets from its central supermassive black hole.

Active galactic nucleus: A compact, highly luminous region at a galaxy’s center, powered by matter accreting onto a supermassive black hole. Cygnus A’s central engine is an unusually powerful example of this phenomenon.
3C 405: The Third Cambridge Catalogue designation for the radio source identified with Cygnus A. This is the catalog name used in many radio astronomy studies of the galaxy.
Grote Reber: An American radio engineer who built the first dedicated radio telescope and mapped the radio sky. Reber’s early radio surveys helped establish Cygnus A as a bright celestial source.
Radio galaxy: A galaxy whose extended radio emission is powered by jets from an active central black hole. Cygnus A is a canonical example of a radio galaxy with enormous lobes.
Relativistic jet: A narrow outflow of matter moving at a substantial fraction of the speed of light. Opposing jets carry energy from Cygnus A’s nucleus toward its distant radio lobes.
Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array: A radio interferometer in New Mexico composed of 27 movable antennas. Its observations resolve Cygnus A’s jets, lobes, and hotspots in detail.
John Stanley Hey: A British radar scientist who discovered strong cosmic radio emission during wartime research. Hey’s work helped identify Cygnus as a conspicuous source of radio waves.
Galaxy cluster: A gravitationally bound system containing many galaxies, hot gas, and dark matter. Cygnus A lies in a cluster whose gas interacts with its expanding radio source.
Radio lobe: A large region of radio-emitting plasma inflated by a jet from an active galactic nucleus. Cygnus A’s paired lobes mark where its jets deposit energy outside the host galaxy.
Chandra X-ray Observatory: A space telescope that observes high-energy X-rays with sub-arcsecond imaging. X-ray observations reveal hot gas and energetic structures surrounding Cygnus A.

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