The Sombrero Galaxy in Infrared Light

Esahubble_opo0328b_1024

esahubble_opo0328b October 2nd, 2003

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope joined forces to create this striking composite image of one of the most popular sights in the universe. 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." 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.

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo0328b/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
M 104 NGC 4594 Sombrero Galaxy
Subject - Local Universe
Galaxy > Type > Spiral
Esahubble_opo0328b_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 12h 39m 59.3s
DEC = -11° 37’ 21.9”
Orientation
North is 5.0° CW
Field of View
9.6 x 5.4 arcminutes
Constellation
Virgo

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Red Spitzer (IRAC) Infrared (Near-IR) 8.0 µm
Green Spitzer (IRAC) Infrared (Near-IR) 3.6 µm
Cyan Hubble (ACS) Optical (V) 555.0 nm
Blue Hubble (ACS) Optical (B) 435.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Red
Green
Cyan
Blue
Esahubble_opo0328b_1280
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ID
opo0328b
Subject Category
C.5.1.1  
Subject Name
M 104, NGC 4594, Sombrero Galaxy
Credits
NASA/JPL-Caltech and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Release Date
2003-10-02T06:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo0328b/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Distance in light years from NED
Facility
Spitzer Space Telescope, Spitzer Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
IRAC, IRAC, ACS, ACS
Color Assignment
Red, Green, Cyan, Blue
Band
Infrared, Infrared, Optical, Optical
Bandpass
Near-IR, Near-IR, V, B
Central Wavelength
8000, 3600, 555, 435
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
189.997030464, -11.6227632268
Reference Dimension
3000.0, 1681.0
Reference Pixel
1500.0, 840.5
Scale
-5.31338684111e-05, 5.31338684111e-05
Rotation
-5.0199999999999907
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
ESA/Hubble
URL
http://www.spacetelescope.org/
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2
City
Garching bei München
State/Province
Postal Code
D-85748
Country
Germany
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
ESA/Hubble
Publisher ID
esahubble
Resource ID
opo0328b
Metadata Date
2005-04-28T14:28:49-07:00
Metadata Version
1.1
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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