The Sombrero Galaxy in
Infrared
From NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
This floating ring is
the size of a galaxy. In fact, it is a galaxy -- or at least part of one: the
photogenic Sombrero Galaxy,
one of the largest galaxies in the nearby Virgo Cluster of Galaxies.
The dark band of dust that obscures the
mid-section of the Sombrero
Galaxy in optical light actually glows brightly in infrared light.
The image,
digitally sharpened, shows the infrared glow,
recently recorded by the orbiting Spitzer Space
Telescope, superposed in false-color on an existing image taken by
NASA's Hubble Space
Telescope in optical light.
The Sombrero Galaxy, also
known as M104,
spans about 50,000 light
years across and lies 28 million light years away. M104 can be seen with a
small telescope in the direction of the constellation Virgo.
