NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (SSC)

A More Spectacular Sombrero

This movie shifts from the well-known visible-light picture of Messier 104 taken by the Hubble Space Telescope to infrared views from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. 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."

Viewed from Earth, the spiral galaxy is seen nearly edge-on, just six degrees away from its equatorial plane. 50,000 light-years across, the Sombrero galaxy is considered one of the most massive objects at the southern edge of the Virgo cluster of galaxies. It is located 28 million light-years away, hosts a rich system of nearly 2,000 globular clusters and may harbor a super-massive black hole.

In Hubble's visible light image, only the near rim of dust can be clearly seen in silhouette. Recent observations using Spitzer's infrared array camera uncovered the bright, smooth ring of dust circling the galaxy, seen in red. Spitzer's infrared view of the starlight, pierced 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.

About the Object (1)
Object name:	Sombrero Galaxy, M104, Messier 104, NGC 4594
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
About the Data
Spitzer Data
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), 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
Observers
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)

Additional Info
Press Release:	Hats Off to Space Day from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope

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