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Description
The Sombrero Galaxy
Pic by NASA
Taken by Hubble Space Telescope

Sombrero Galaxy (also known as Messier Object 104, M104 or NGC 4594) is an elliptical galaxy in the constellation Virgo located 9.55 Mpc (31,100,000 ly) from Earth. The galaxy has a diameter of approximately 15kpc (50,000 light-years), 30% the size of the Milky Way. It has a bright nucleus, an unusually large central bulge, and a prominent dust lane in its inclined disk. The dark dust lane and the bulge give this galaxy the appearance of a sombrero. Astronomers initially thought that the halo was small and light, indicative of a spiral galaxy, but the Spitzer space telescope found that the halo around the Sombrero Galaxy is larger and more massive than previously thought, indicative of a giant elliptical galaxy. The galaxy has an apparent magnitude of +8.0, making it easily visible with amateur telescopes, and it is considered by some authors to be the brightest galaxy within a radius of 10 megaparsecs of the Milky Way.

NASA MEDIA USAGE GUIDELINES:
Still Images, Audio Recordings, Video, and Related Computer Files for Non-Commercial Use

NASA content - images, audio, video, and computer files used in the rendition of 3-dimensional models, such as texture maps and polygon data in any format - generally are not copyrighted. You may use this material for educational or informational purposes, including photo collections, textbooks, public exhibits, computer graphical simulations and Internet Web pages. This general permission extends to personal Web pages.

Description
The Sombrero Galaxy
Pic by NASA
Taken by Hubble Space Telescope

Sombrero Galaxy (also known as Messier Object 104, M104 or NGC 4594) is an elliptical galaxy in the constellation Virgo located 9.55 Mpc (31,100,000 ly) from Earth. The galaxy has a diameter of approximately 15kpc (50,000 light-years), 30% the size of the Milky Way. It has a bright nucleus, an unusually large central bulge, and a prominent dust lane in its inclined disk. The dark dust lane and the bulge give this galaxy the appearance of a sombrero. Astronomers initially thought that the halo was small and light, indicative of a spiral galaxy, but the Spitzer space telescope found that the halo around the Sombrero Galaxy is larger and more massive than previously thought, indicative of a giant elliptical galaxy. The galaxy has an apparent magnitude of +8.0, making it easily visible with amateur telescopes, and it is considered by some authors to be the brightest galaxy within a radius of 10 megaparsecs of the Milky Way.

NASA MEDIA USAGE GUIDELINES:
Still Images, Audio Recordings, Video, and Related Computer Files for Non-Commercial Use

NASA content - images, audio, video, and computer files used in the rendition of 3-dimensional models, such as texture maps and polygon data in any format - generally are not copyrighted. You may use this material for educational or informational purposes, including photo collections, textbooks, public exhibits, computer graphical simulations and Internet Web pages. This general permission extends to personal Web pages.