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| Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Kennicutt (University of Arizona), and the SINGS Team; Visible: Hubble Space Telescope/Hubble Heritage Team |
Spitzer Spies Spectacular Sombrero
NASA's Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes joined forces to create this striking composite image of one of the most popular sights in the universe. Messier 104 is commonly known as the Sombrero galaxy because in visible light, it resembles the broad-brimmed Mexican hat. However, in Spitzer's striking infrared view, the galaxy looks more like a "bull's eye."
In Hubble's visible light image (lower left panel), only the near rim of dust can be clearly seen in silhouette. Recent observations using Spitzer's infrared array camera (lower right panel) uncovered the bright, smooth ring of dust circling the galaxy, seen in red. Spitzer's infrared view of the starlight, piercing through the obscuring dust, is easily seen, along with the bulge of stars and an otherwise hidden disk of stars within the dust ring.
Spitzer's full view shows the disk is warped, which is often the result of a gravitational encounter with another galaxy, and clumpy areas spotted in the far edges of the ring indicate young star-forming regions.
The Sombrero galaxy is located some 28 million light-years away. Viewed from Earth, it is just six degrees south of its equatorial plane. Spitzer detected infrared emission not only from the ring, but from the center of the galaxy too, where there is a huge black hole, believed to be a billion times more massive than our Sun.
The Spitzer picture is composed of four images taken at 3.6 (blue), 4.5 (green), 5.8 (orange), and 8.0 (red) microns. The contribution from starlight (measured at 3.6 microns) has been subtracted from the 5.8 and 8-micron images to enhance the visibility of the dust features.
The Hubble Heritage Team took these observations in May-June 2003 with the space telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys. Images were taken in three filters (red, green, and blue) to yield a natural-color image. The team took six pictures of the galaxy and then stitched them together to create the final composite image. This magnificent galaxy has a diameter that is nearly one-fifth the diameter of the full Moon.
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| About the Object | | Object name: | Sombrero Galaxy, M104, Messier 104 | | Object type: | Edge-on galaxy | | Position (J2000): | RA: 12h 39m 59.40s Dec: -11° 37' 23.00" | | Distance: | 8.6 million pc; 28 million light-years | | Constellation: | Virgo |
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About the Data
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Spitzer Data
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| Image Credit: | NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Kennicutt (University of Arizona) and the SINGS team | | Instrument: | IRAC | | Wavelength: | 3.6 (blue), 4.5 (green), 5.8 (orange), and 8.0 (red) microns | | Exposure Date: | 10 June 2004, 22 January 2005 | | Exposure Time: | 240 sec per sky position | | Image scale: | 9.6 x 5.4 arcmin | | Orientation: | North is 15 deg CW from up | | Release Date: | 2005/05/04 |
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Observers
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Robert Kennicutt, Principal Investigator (Steward Observatory, University of Arizona)
Lee Armus (Spitzer Science Center, Caltech)
George Bendo (Steward Observatory, University of Arizona)
Daniela Calzetti (Space Telescope Science Institute)
John Cannon (MPIA Heidelberg)
Daniel Dale (University of Wyoming)
Bruce Draine (Princeton University)
Charles Engelbracht (Steward Observatory, University of Arizona)
Karl Gordon (Steward Observatory, University of Arizona)
George Helou (Caltech)
David Hollenbach (NASA Ames Research Center)
Thomas Jarrett (Caltech)
Lisa Kewley (University of Hawaii)
Claus Leitherer (Space Telescope Science Institute)
Aigen Li (University of Missouri-Columbia)
Sangeeta Malhotra (Space Telescope Science Institute)
Martin Meyer (Space Telescope Science Institute)
Eric Murphy (Yale University)
Moire Prescott (University of Arizona)
Michael Regan (Space Telescope Science Institute)
George Rieke (Steward Observatory, University of Arizona)
Marcia Rieke (Steward Observatory, University of Arizona)
Helene Roussel (Caltech)
John-David Smith (Steward Observatory, University of Arizona)
Michele D. Thornley (Bucknell University, Space Telescope Science Institute)
Fabian Walter (MPIA Heidelberg) |
INDIVIDUAL IMAGES
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Combined Spitzer-Hubble view
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Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/STScI
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Hubble-only view
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Credit: NASA/Hubble Space Telescope/Hubble Heritage Team
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Spitzer-only view
Screen-Resolution (450x252):
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High-Resolution (3000x1681):
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Mac TIFF
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PC TIFF
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Kennicutt (University of Arizo
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