The Sombrero Galaxy - M104, Hubble Space Telescope, Rudy Pohl

The Sombrero Galaxy - M104, Hubble Space Telescope

The Sombrero Galaxy - M104, Hubble Space Telescope, Rudy Pohl

The Sombrero Galaxy - M104, Hubble Space Telescope

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Description

Data acquisition: Hubble Legacy Archive, NASA

Data processing: Rudy Pohl

RGB image

Filters used: f435w - blue, f555w - green, f625 - red

The Sombrero Galaxy, also known as M104, is another iconic Hubble telescope image. Astronomers named it Sombrero because it resembles the well-known wide-brimmed Mexican hat with a tall bulge at the center. The galaxy is 50,000 light-years wide and is roughly 29 million light-years away, close enough to be spotted with amateur telescopes. Researchers have found evidence of a super-massive black hole at the center of the Sombrero Galaxy. Estimated to be as large as a billion Suns, it's one of the heftiest black holes in the neighboring universe.

COOL: Check out the two interacting spiral galaxies near the bottom of the image to the left of the blue star with the diffraction spikes.

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The Sombrero Galaxy - M104, Hubble Space Telescope, Rudy Pohl