NGC 7814: The Little
Sombrero in Pegasus
From NASA’s Astronomy Picture of
the Day
Point your telescope
toward the high flying constellation Pegasus and you
can find this expanse of
Milky Way stars and distant galaxies.
Centered on NGC 7814,
the pretty field
of view would almost be covered by a full moon. NGC 7814 is sometimes
called the Little Sombrero for its resemblance to the brighter more famous
M104, the Sombrero
Galaxy.
Both Sombrero and Little
Sombrero are spiral galaxies seen edge-on, and both have extensive central
bulges cut by a thinner disk with dust lanes in silhouette.
In fact, NGC 7814 is some 40 million
light-years away and an estimated 60,000 light-years across.
That actually makes the
Little Sombrero about the same physical size as its better known namesake,
appearing to be smaller and fainter only because it is farther away.
A very
faint dwarf galaxy, potentially a
satellite of NGC 7814, is revealed in the deep exposure just below the Little
Sombrero.
Image Credit & Copyright: Ken Crawford (Rancho Del Sol Obs.)
Collaboration: David Martinez-Delgado ( ARI-ZAH, Univ. Heidelberg)
Collaboration: David Martinez-Delgado ( ARI-ZAH, Univ. Heidelberg)