Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Virgo (Vir)  ·  Contains:  M 104  ·  NGC 4594  ·  Sombrero Galaxy
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M104 LRGB, Ron Stanley
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M104 LRGB

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M104 LRGB, Ron Stanley
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M104 LRGB

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Description

M104 or The Sombrero Galaxy lies approximately 31M ly's away on the border of constellations Virgo and Corvus.  It's approximately a third of the size of the Milky Way with a diameter of 49000 ly's.  Observations by Nasa's Spitzer Space Telescope have determined that M104 is  a hybrid of a spiral and elliptical galaxy with a super massive black hole at its core with a mass of about 1 billion suns. The galaxy was discovered in 1781 by the French astronomer Pierre Mechain.  It was only added to Messier's catalog in 1921 when French astronomer Camille Flammarion associated the galaxy with a note written by Messier about an area of beutiful nebulosity visible in the direction of the constellation Virgo.

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  • M104 LRGB, Ron Stanley
    Original
  • M104 LRGB, Ron Stanley
    B
  • M104 LRGB, Ron Stanley
    C
  • M104 LRGB, Ron Stanley
    D
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  • Final
    M104 LRGB, Ron Stanley
    I

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M104 LRGB, Ron Stanley