                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                 2026 May 29

                                 Messier 104
                Image Credit: CTIO, NOIRLab, DOE, NSF, AURA;
     Image Processing: T. A. Rector (U. Alaska Anchorage), D. de Martin
                 (NSF’s NOIRLab) & M. Zamani (NSF, NOIRLab)

   Explanation: A gorgeous spiral galaxy, Messier 104 is famous for its
   nearly edge-on profile featuring a broad ring of obscuring dust lanes.
   Seen in silhouette against an extensive central bulge of stars, the
   swath of cosmic dust lends a broad brimmed hat-like appearance to the
   galaxy suggesting a more popular moniker, the Sombrero Galaxy. Also
   known as NGC 4594, the Sombrero galaxy can be seen across the spectrum
   and is host to a central supermassive black hole. About 50,000
   light-years across and 28 million light-years away, M104 is one of the
   largest galaxies at the southern edge of the Virgo Galaxy Cluster.
   Still, the spiky foreground stars in this field of view lie well within
   our own Milky Way. This broad view of the well-known galaxy was
   processed to reveal M104's extended halo, as well as a faint tidal
   stellar stream. It was captured by the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) on
   the Blanco 4-meter telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American
   Observatory.

                       Tomorrow's picture: moon sizes
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
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                             & Michigan Tech. U.

