Celebrating the International Year of
Light 2015 we present a stunning multi-wavelength image of Pictor
A, the closest powerful Fanaroff-Riley class II radio source. The host
galaxy appears as a non-descript point at the centre of the background
optical image (grey: ESO DSS-2 R-band image). An X-ray jet (blue:
Chandra X-ray image, A. Wilson, NASA, UMD) is seen emanating from the centre
of the galaxy extending across 360,000 light years toward a brilliant hotspot.
Two nearly circular lobes, normally reminiscent of a "dying" radio source,
are seen at radio wavelengths (red: 6 cm ATCA radio
continuum image by Emil Lenc, published in the
Wilson et al.
(2011) CABB paper) but the presence of hot spots (seen at the lobe
extremities) suggest that the jet may have been recently re-activated.
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