M 104 - Sombrero Galaxy, Steven Marx

M 104 - Sombrero Galaxy

M 104 - Sombrero Galaxy, Steven Marx

M 104 - Sombrero Galaxy

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Description

M104 - Raw fits data obtained from Hubble Legacy Archive.

The Sombrero Galaxy (also known as M104 or NGC 4594) is an unbarred spiral galaxy in the constellation Virgo located 28 million light years from Earth. 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 Spitzer found that 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 +9.0, making it easily visible with amateur telescopes. The large bulge, the central supermassive black hole, and the dust lane all attract the attention of professional astronomers.

A special processing technique was used to improve the visibility of the nucleus details that would otherwise be lost in the overwhelming glare. This allows features of the galaxy's dust lanes to be followed well into the bright central region. In the 1990s, a research group led by John Kormendy demonstrated that a supermassive black hole is present within the Sombrero Galaxy. Using spectroscopy data from both the CFHT and the Hubble Space Telescope, the group showed that the speed of revolution of the stars within the center of the galaxy could not be maintained unless a mass 1 billion times the mass of the Sun, or 109 M, is present in the center. This is among the most massive black holes measured in any nearby galaxies.

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M 104 - Sombrero Galaxy, Steven Marx