Dustbands in the Sombrero Galaxy

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).

Crédit:

ESO/P. Barthel

À propos de l'image

Identification:eso0007c
Type:Observation
Date de publication:23 février 2000
Communiqués de presse en rapport:eso0007
Taille:2028 x 1324 px

À propos de l'objet

Nom:M 104, Messier 104, Sombrero Galaxy
Type:Local Universe : Galaxy : Component : Bulge
Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Spiral
Distance:35 million années lumière
Constellation:Virgo
Catégorie:Galaxies

Image Formats

Grand JPEG
1,6 Mio
JPEG taille écran
447,1 Kio

Fonds d'écran

1024x768
454,2 Kio
1280x1024
760,2 Kio
1600x1200
1,1 Mio
1920x1200
1,3 Mio
2048x1536
1,7 Mio

Coordinates

Position (RA):12 39 58.80
Position (Dec):-11° 37' 17.03"
Field of view:6.77 x 4.42 arcminutes
Orientation:North is 0.1° right of vertical

Couleurs & filtres

DomaineLongueur d'ondeTélescope
Visible
V
554 nmVery Large Telescope
FORS1