Fine shades of a Sombrero*

Image of the famous early-type spiral galaxy Messier 104, widely known as the "Sombrero" (the Mexican hat) because of its particular shape. The "Sombrero" is located in the constellation Virgo (The Virgin), at a distance of about 50 million light-years.

Messier 104 is the 104th object in the famous catalogue of nebulae by French astronomer Charles Messier (1730 - 1817). It was not included in the first two editions (with 45 objects in 1774; 103 in 1781), but Messier soon thereafter added it by hand in his personal copy as a "very faint nebula". The recession velocity, about 1000 km/sec, was first measured by American astronomer Vesto M. Slipher at the Lowell Observatory in 1912; he was also the first to detect the galaxy's rotation.

This galaxy is notable for its dominant nuclear bulge, composed primarily of mature stars, and its nearly edge-on disc 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 disc. A significant fraction of the galaxy disc is even visible on the far side of the source, despite its massive bulge.

A large number of small and slightly diffuse sources can be seen as a swarm in the halo of Messier 104. Most of these are globular clusters, similar to those found in our own Galaxy

This picture was obtained with FORS1 multi-mode instrument at VLT ANTU on January 30, 2000. It is a composite of three exposures in different wavebands. North is up and East is left.

Technical information : This composite image is based on three exposures from the FORS1 instrument at VLT ANTU. They were obtained at about 6:20 hrs UT on January 30, 2000, through V-band (central wavelength 554 nm; 112 nm Full Width Half Maximum (FWHM); exposure time 120 sec; here rendered as blue), R-band (657 nm; 150 nm FWHM; 120 sec; green) and I-band (768 nm; 138 nm FWHM, 240 sec; red). The seeing was 0.6–0.7 arcseconds.

This image is available as a mounted image in the ESOshop.

#L

Crédit:

ESO/P. Barthel
Acknowledgments: Mark Neeser (Kapteyn Institute, Groningen) and Richard Hook (ST/ECF, Garching, Germany).

À propos de l'image

Identification:eso0007a
Type:Observation
Date de publication:23 février 2000
Communiqués de presse en rapport:eso0007
Taille:4961 x 4961 px

À propos de l'objet

Nom:M 104, Messier 104, NGC 4594, Sombrero Galaxy
Type:Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Spiral
Distance:35 million années lumière
Constellation:Virgo
Catégorie:Galaxies

Formats des images

Grand JPEG
4,7 Mio
JPEG taille écran
175,6 Kio

Zoomable


Fonds d'écran

1024x768
161,4 Kio
1280x1024
267,1 Kio
1600x1200
389,5 Kio
1920x1200
443,6 Kio
2048x1536
654,0 Kio

Coordinates

Position (RA):12 39 59.40
Position (Dec):-11° 37' 23.21"
Field of view:6.78 x 6.78 arcminutes
Orientation:North is 0.1° right of vertical

Couleurs & filtres

DomaineLongueur d'ondeTélescope
Visible
V
554 nmVery Large Telescope
FORS1
Visible
R
657 nmVery Large Telescope
FORS1
Infrarouge
I
768 nmVery Large Telescope
FORS1