Dustbands in the Sombrero Galaxy

It is possible to follow the spiral structure of the Sombrero Galaxy almost all the way round. The dark areas around the stars and galaxies in the field are artefacts of the image processing. This galaxy is notable for its dominant nuclear bulge, composed primarily of mature stars, and its nearly edge-on disk composed of stars, gas, and intricately structured dust. The complexity of this dust, and the high resolution of this image, is most apparent directly in front of the bright nucleus, but is also very evident as dark absorbing lanes throughout the disk. A significant fraction of the galaxy disk is even visible on the far side of the source, despite its massive bulge.

Technical information : The image has been processed to show the numerous dust bands in the central plane. It was made by dividing the V-band image by itself smoothed with a 2D gaussian profile (sigma: 10 pix); this removes the uniform areas and enhances the high spatial frequency features, e.g. the dust bands. Image processing by Mark Neeser (Kapteyn Institute, Groningen) and Richard Hook (ST/ECF, Garching, Germany).

Credit:

ESO/P. Barthel

Over de afbeelding

Id:eso0007c
Type:Observatie
Publicatiedatum:23 februari 2000
Gerelateerde berichten:eso0007
Grootte:2028 x 1324 px

Over het object

Naam:M 104, Messier 104, Sombrero Galaxy
Type:Local Universe : Galaxy : Component : Bulge
Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Spiral
Afstand:35 miljoen lichtjaren
Constellation:Virgo
Categorie:Galaxies

Image Formats

Grote JPEG
1,6 MB

Wallpapers

1024x768
454,2 KB
1280x1024
760,2 KB
1600x1200
1,1 MB
1920x1200
1,3 MB
2048x1536
1,7 MB

Coordinates

Position (RA):12 39 58.80
Position (Dec):-11° 37' 17.03"
Field of view:6.77 x 4.42 arcminutes
Orientation:North is 0.1° right of vertical

Kleuren & filters

BandGolflengteTelescoop
Optisch
V
554 nmVery Large Telescope
FORS1