Why Does This Galaxy Look Like a Giant Hat?
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Inspired by a post from @NASA on Instagram 🚀
The Sombrero Galaxy (Messier 104) is not actually shaped like a hat. It is a flat disk galaxy about 50,000 light-years across, and from Earth we see it nearly edge-on, tilted only about 6 degrees from its plane. Its huge, bright central bulge of mostly old stars forms the 'crown', while a dark ring of dust around it forms the 'brim'. It lies roughly 28 to 31 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo, depending on the source.
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Transcript
- Sef Tiggy, why does the Sombrero Galaxy look like a hat?
- Sef Easy! It's shaped like a giant hat, obviously!
- Tiggy Nope. It's a flat disk, seen from the side.
- Tiggy A glowing bulge of stars makes the crown. A dark dust ring makes the brim.
- Tiggy We see it tilted just 6 degrees from edge on.
- Sef So it's a galaxy showing off its best side!
Sources
- ESA/Webb: Sombrero Galaxy (MIRI image) esawebb.org
- NASA Science: Sombrero Galaxy Webb Compass Image science.nasa.gov
- ESO: Dustbands in the Sombrero Galaxy eso.org
- Sci.News: Hubble Revisits Messier 104 sci.news
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