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M104 Sombrero Galaxy
M104, also known as the Sombrero Galaxy, is an unbarred spiral galaxy seen almost edge-on in the direction of the Constellation Virgo at a distance of 28-30 Million Light-Years. M104 has an extremely bright nucleus and a very large central bulge which extends the length of the galaxy disk. A dark dust lane containing most of the gas and dust traverses the girth, and together with the bright bulge lends it the name "Sombrero Galaxy" as seen through a telescope eyepiece. There is a supermassive black hole at least a billion times the mass of our sun in the core. The nucleua area seems devoid of any significant star forming regions. Another significant feature of M104 is its numerous globular clusters of old stars spread fairly evenly throughout the large halo, and the number of these clusters is thought to be related to the size of the bulge. |
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Mano Prieto Observatory © 2008 |
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