Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Virgo (Vir)  ·  Contains:  M 104  ·  NGC 4594  ·  Sombrero Galaxy
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M104 Sombrero Galaxy, Edward Overstreet
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M104 Sombrero Galaxy, Edward Overstreet
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Description

M104 The Sombrero Galaxy is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Virgo, whose bright nucleus, unusually large central bulge, and prominent dust ring give it the appearance of a Mexican hat......well I guess!

In 1912, M104 became the first galaxy for which a large redshift was found, by Vesto Slipher of Lowell Observatory. M104's redshift corresponds to a recession velocity of about 1100 km/sec - too fast for it to be an object inside our Milky Way galaxy. Slipher's observations were among the first key pieces of evidence for of the expansion of the universe and the Big Bang Theory. Slipher also observed rotation in the spectrum of the Sombrero, making it the first galaxy in which rotation was observed.

At least two methods have been used to measure the distance to the Sombrero Galaxy; their results average 29.3 million light years, with an uncertainty of 1.6 million. It has a linear diameter of 130,000 light-years. The symmetric dust ring that encloses the central bulge also contains most of the galaxy's cold hydrogen gas, and is the primary site of star formation within the galaxy.

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M104 Sombrero Galaxy, Edward Overstreet