A Look to the Heavens

“What’s going on in the center of this spiral galaxy? Named the Sombrero
Galaxy for its hat-like resemblance, M104 features a prominent dust
lane and a bright halo of stars and globular clusters. Reasons for the
Sombrero’s hat-like appearance include an unusually large and extended
central bulge of stars, and dark prominent dust lanes that appear in a
disk that we see nearly edge-on. Billions of old stars cause the diffuse
glow of the extended central bulge. Close inspection of the bulge in
the above photograph shows many points of light that are actually
globular clusters. 

 Click image for larger size.

M104′s spectacular dust rings harbor many younger and brighter stars,
and show intricate details astronomers don’t yet fully understand. The
very center of the Sombrero glows across the electromagnetic spectrum,
and is thought to house a large black hole. Fifty million-year-old light
from the Sombrero Galaxy can be seen with a small telescope towards the
constellation of Virgo.”