                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                 2021 May 14

                          M104: The Sombrero Galaxy
                    Image Credit & Copyright: Bray Falls

   Explanation: A gorgeous spiral galaxy, M104 is famous for its nearly
   edge-on profile featuring a broad ring of obscuring dust lanes. Seen in
   silhouette against an extensive central bulge of stars, the swath of
   cosmic dust lends a broad brimmed hat-like appearance to the galaxy
   suggesting a more popular moniker, the Sombrero Galaxy. This sharp
   optical view of the well-known galaxy made from ground-based image data
   was processed to preserve details often lost in overwhelming glare of
   M104's bright central bulge. Also known as NGC 4594, the Sombrero
   galaxy can be seen across the spectrum, and is host to a central
   supermassive black hole. About 50,000 light-years across and 28 million
   light-years away, M104 is one of the largest galaxies at the southern
   edge of the Virgo Galaxy Cluster. Still the colorful spiky foreground
   stars in this field of view lie well within our own Milky Way galaxy.

                     Tomorrow's picture: over the cliff
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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                             & Michigan Tech. U.

