The radio jets in this image are so large that light takes a million years to travel from one end to the other. The radio galaxy 3C 130 is located in a distant cluster and, like most galaxies of its kind, is elliptical. In visible light 3C 130 shows no sign of possessing a radio jet; it looks like an ordinary elliptical galaxy (see NGC 4647). The radio jets in this image extend far outside the host galaxy, which is less than a tenth the width of the image. Many physicists believe that intense magnetic fields play a crucial role in the formation of radio jets.
3C 130 emits a great deal of energy from its active nucleus (the white point at the center of this image). Astronomers generally believe that active nuclei are
