Sombrero galaxy (M 104) in Virgo
The Sombrero Galaxy (M 104 or NGC 4594) is an unbarred spiral galaxy in the constellation Virgo located 28 million light-years (8.6 Mpc) from Earth.
It has a bright nucleus, an unusually large central bulge, and a prominent dust lane in its inclined disk.
The dark dust lane and the bulge give this galaxy the appearance of a sombrero.
Find a high resolution Hubble image here.
Image data
LRGB L=14x300s, RGB 8x300s each, unguided
80cm f/7 Astrooptik Keller Hypergraph, FLI Proline 16803, Baader Filters, Prompt 7 CTIO Chile;
Acquisition: Philipp Keller, Konstantin Buchhold
Processing: Volker Wendel