Sombrero Galaxy

by Jim DeLillo

Title

Sombrero Galaxy

Artist

Jim DeLillo

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Photograph - Digital Photo

Description

The Sombrero Galaxy (also known as Messier Object 104, M104 or NGC 4594) is a spiral galaxy[4] in the constellation borders of Virgo and Corvus, being about 9.55 megaparsecs (31.1 million light-years)[2] from our galaxy, within the local supercluster. It has a diameter of approximately 15 kiloparsecs (49,000 light-years),[5] 30% the size of the Milky Way. It has a bright nucleus, an unusually large central bulge, and a prominent dust lane in its outer disk, which is viewed almost edge-on. The dark dust lane and the bulge give this galaxy the appearance of a sombrero hat. Astronomers initially thought that the halo was small and light, indicative of a spiral galaxy, but the Spitzer Space Telescope found that the dust ring around the Sombrero Galaxy is larger and more massive than previously thought, indicative of a giant elliptical galaxy.[6] The galaxy has an apparent magnitude of +8.0,[5] making it easily visible with amateur telescopes, and it is considered by some authors to be the galaxy with the highest absolute magnitude within a radius of 10 megaparsecs of the Milky Way.[3] Its large bulge, its central supermassive black hole, and its dust lane all attract the attention of professional astronomers.

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February 9th, 2021

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