APOD 3.3

Pictured above is the M104 galaxy. The galaxy is appropriately named the Sombrero galaxy for its appearance. The galaxy is made up of cosmic dust, and has a broad ring and then dust lanes which make it seem like a sombrero. This image was processed from the Hubble space telescope and the ground based Subaru data to create this image. The galaxy is believed to hold a black hole. The galaxy is 50,000 light years across and 28 million light years from earth. It resides in the Virgo galaxy cluster and is one of the largest inside of the cluster.  Its quite fascinating how the galaxy resembles a sombrero.