Discovery of VHE -ray emission from Centaurus A with H.E.S.S.

Up to now, all extragalactic sources of very high energy (VHE; E > 100 GeV) -rays are active galactic nuclei. Almost all of them belong to the class of blazars, which are active galactic nuclei with the jet axis closely aligned to the line of sight and the emission relativistically boosted. One exception is the radio galaxy M 87: in radio galaxies the plasma jets are inclined with a larger angle to the line of sight, enabling spatial studies of the jet structure in many wavelength bands. Here, we present the discovery of VHE -ray emission from the nearest radio galaxy Centaurus A with H.E.S.S. The detection of Centaurus A confirms radio galaxies as a new source class of VHE -rays. The implications of these results on the emission site and on the different