Centaurus A at Hard X-Rays and Soft Gamma-Rays

CenA, at a distance of less than 4Mpc, is the nearest radio-loud AGN. Its emission is detected from radio to very-high energy gamma-rays. Despite the fact that CenA is one of the best studied extragalactic objects the origin of its hard X-ray and soft gamma-ray emission (100keV<E<50MeV) is still uncertain. Observations with high spatial resolution in the adjacent soft X-ray and hard gamma-ray regimes suggest that several distinct components such as a Seyfert-like nucleus, relativistic jets, and even luminous X-ray binaries within CenA may contribute to the total emission in the MeV regime that has been detected with low spatial resolution. As the Spectral Energy Distribution of CenA has its second maximum around 1MeV, this energy range plays an important role in modeling the emission of (this) AGN. As there will be no satellite mission in the near future that will cover this energies with higher spatial resolution and better sensitivity, an overview of all existing hard X-ray and soft gamma-ray measurements of CenA is presented here defining the present knowledge on CenA in the MeV energy range.