High-energy jet in NGC 3862

This is the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of the central region of the galaxy NGC 3862 that reveals a jet-like feature previously unseen in optical wavelengths.  The image was taken with the European Space Agency's Faint object Camera in F/96 mode at a wavelength of 3400 Å in the near-ultraviolet region of the spectrum. The image's 0.06 arc second resolution reveals several knots and twists in the jet. The jet's full angular size is about 0.6 arc second, corresponding to a length of about 740 light-years.

NGC 3862 is an elliptical galaxy in a rich cluster of galaxies known as Abell 1367, located at a distance of about 260 million light-years away in the constellation of Leo.

This new type of jet suggests that astronomers are seeing a new and unexpected phenomenon in galactic nuclei.