Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Virgo (Vir)  ·  Contains:  M 104  ·  NGC 4594  ·  Sombrero Galaxy
M104 - Sombrero Galaxy, Lucas Magalhães
M104 - Sombrero Galaxy
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M104 - Sombrero Galaxy

M104 - Sombrero Galaxy, Lucas Magalhães
M104 - Sombrero Galaxy
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M104 - Sombrero Galaxy

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Description

The Sombrero Galaxy (M104 or NGC4594) is a lenticular galaxy in the constellation Virgo. It is estimated to be 9.55 megaparsecs (31.1 million light years) from Earth. The galaxy has a diameter of approximately 15 kiloparsecs (49,000 light years).

It has a shiny core, an unusually large central bulge, and a prominent dust strip on its sloping disk. The strip of dark dust and the bulge give this galaxy the appearance of a sombrero hat. Astronomers initially thought 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 an elliptical galaxy giant. The galaxy has an apparent magnitude of +8.0 and is considered by some authors to be the galaxy with the highest absolute magnitude within a 10-megaparsec radius of the Milky Way.

The Sombrero Galaxy is within a complex filament-like galaxy cloud that extends south of the Virgo Cluster. However, it is not clear whether the Sombrero Galaxy is part of a group of formal galaxies.

The image field brings five ​more faint galaxies. Describing from top to bottom:

PGC 157913 - mag. +16.4 / size 0.6x0.2 arcmin

PGC 964919 - mag. +17.7 / size 0.2x0.2 arcmin

PGC 964710 - mag. +17.9 / size 0.3x0.1 arcmin

PGC 962963 - mag. +16.6 / size 0.5x0.3 arcmin

PGC 961516 - did not find the data

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M104 - Sombrero Galaxy, Lucas Magalhães