Dustbands in the Sombrero Galaxy

Eso_eso0007c_1024

eso_eso0007c February 23rd, 2000

Credit: ESO/P. Barthel

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).

Provider: European Southern Observatory

Image Source: https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso0007c/

Curator: European Southern Observatory, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
M 104 Messier 104 Sombrero Galaxy
Subject - Local Universe
Galaxy > Type > Spiral
Galaxy > Component > Bulge
Eso_eso0007c_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 12h 39m 58.8s
DEC = -11° 37’ 17.0”
Orientation
North is 0.1° CW
Field of View
6.8 x 4.4 arcminutes
Constellation
Virgo

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Grayscale VLT (FORS1) Optical (V) 554.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Grayscale
Eso_eso0007c_1280
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ID
eso0007c
Subject Category
C.5.1.1   C.5.4.1  
Subject Name
M 104, Messier 104, Sombrero Galaxy
Credits
ESO/P. Barthel
Release Date
2000-02-23T00:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso0007c/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Very Large Telescope
Instrument
FORS1
Color Assignment
Grayscale
Band
Optical
Bandpass
V
Central Wavelength
554
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
189.995010146, -11.6213974538
Reference Dimension
2028.0, 1324.0
Reference Pixel
1059.99202528, 771.652645353
Scale
-5.56431298205e-05, 5.56431298205e-05
Rotation
-0.10398860430000041
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
European Southern Observatory
URL
http://www.eso.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
European Southern Observatory
Publisher ID
eso
Resource ID
eso0007c
Metadata Date
2009-01-07T16:18:10+01:00
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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