History of Hubble Space Telescope (HST)

The razor sharp eye of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) easily resolves the Sombrero galaxy, Messier 104 (M104). 50,000 light-years across, the galaxy is located 28 million light-years from Earth at the southern edge of the rich Virgo cluster of galaxies. Equivalent to 800 billion suns, Sombrero is one of the most massive objects in that group. The hallmark of Sombrero is a brilliant white, bulbous core encircled by the thick dust lanes comprising the spiral structure of the galaxy. As seen from Earth, the galaxy is tilted nearly edge-on. We view it from just six degrees north of its equatorial plane. This rich system of globular clusters is estimated to be nearly 2,000 in number which is 10 times as many as in our Milky Way galaxy. Similar to the clusters in the Milky Way, the ages range from 10-13 billion years old. Embedded in the bright core of M104 is a smaller disk, which is tilted relative to the large disk. The HST paired with the Spitzer infrared telescope, offers this striking composite capturing the magnificence of the Sombrero galaxy. In the Hubble view, the galaxy resembles a broad-rimmed Mexican hat, whereas in the Spitzer striking infrared view, the galaxy looks more

Date

2003-06-09

Collection

MSFC

Archive

NASA Image and Video Library

Type

photograph

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