CCD image of the central region of Centaurus A, showing detail of the great lane of dust which bisects the galaxy. Centaurus A is so called because it is the brightest source of radio emission in the constellation of Centaurus. Located some 16 million light years away, it is the nearest active galaxy to Earth. The picture is a composite of frames in yellow, red & near- infrared light; they were taken with a CCD (charge-coupled device) camera mounted on the 1.5- metre telescope of the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. A CCD is a type of light- sensitive silicon chip.