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Credit & Copyright:
Image Data: NASA, ESA, Hubble Legacy Archive;
Processing & Copyright: Rogelio Bernal Andreo (DeepSkyColors.com)
Explanation:
The striking spiral galaxy
M104 is famous
for its nearly edge-on
profile featuring a broad ring of obscuring dust lanes.
Seen in silhouette against an extensive central bulge of stars,
the swath of cosmic dust lends a
broad brimmed hat-like appearance to the galaxy suggesting
a more popular moniker, The Sombrero Galaxy.
Hubble Space Telescope data have been used to
to create
this sharp
view of the
well-known galaxy.
The processing results in a natural color appearance
and preserves details often lost in overwhelming glare of M104's
bright central bulge when viewed with smaller ground-based
telescopes.
Also known as NGC 4594, the Sombrero galaxy can be seen
across the spectrum and
is host to a central
supermassive black hole.
About 50,000 light-years across and 28 million light-years away,
M104 is one of the
largest galaxies at the southern edge of the
Virgo Galaxy Cluster.
Image Data: NASA, ESA, Hubble Legacy Archive;
Processing & Copyright: Rogelio Bernal Andreo (DeepSkyColors.com)
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: spiral galaxy - dust - M 104
Publications with words: spiral galaxy - dust - M 104
See also:
- APOD: 2024 December 2 Á NGC 300: A Galaxy of Stars
- APOD: 2024 November 26 Á The Sombrero Galaxy from Webb and Hubble
- Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 1365 from Webb
- Spiral Galaxy NGC 6744
- APOD: 2024 October 9 Á M106: A Spiral Galaxy with a Strange Center
- APOD: 2024 September 29 Á Seven Dusty Sisters
- The Dark Seahorse of Cepheus