Astronomy Picture of the Day

Named the Sombrero Galaxy for its hat-like resemblance, M104 features a prominent dust lane and a bright halo of stars and globular clusters. Reasons for the Sombrero's hat-like appearance include an unusually large and extended central bulge of stars, and dark prominent dust lanes that appear in a disk that we see nearly edge-on.   The Sombrero Galaxy from Hubble Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI / AURA) Explanation: What's going on in the center of this ... Full Story