The Sombrero Galaxy from Hale
Explanation:
What's going on in the center of this spiral galaxy?
Named the Sombrero Galaxy for its hat-like resemblance,
M104
features a prominent dust lane and a bright halo of stars and globular
clusters.
Reasons for the
Sombrero's
hat-like appearance include an unusually large and extended central bulge of
stars,
and dark prominent
dust lanes
that appear in a disk that we see nearly
edge-on.
Billions of
old stars
cause the diffuse glow of the extended central bulge
visible in the
above image from the
200-inch Hale
Telescope.
Close inspection of the
central bulge shows many points of light that are actually
globular clusters.
M104's spectacular
dust rings harbor many younger
and brighter stars, and show intricate details astronomers
don't yet fully understand.
The very center of the
Sombrero glows across the
electromagnetic spectrum, and is thought to house a large
black hole.
Fifty million-year-old light from the
Sombrero Galaxy can be seen with a
small telescope towards the
constellation of
Virgo.
Astrophysicists:
Browse 600+ codes in the Astrophysics Source Code Library
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
