Also known as Messier 104, the Sombrero Galaxy is 28 million light years away. Infrared emissions were detected in the ring and in the center of the galaxy, which has a black hole estimated to be one billion times larger than our sun. This leads scientists to believe that there is something really dynamic happening at the core of this galaxy.
It is situated at the southern edge of the Virgo cluster and is one of the most massive objects in the area. In the 19th century many astronomers speculated that is was a mas of luminous gas surrounding a young star and believed it to be very similar to our own galaxy at a much younger age.
This Spitzer picture is composed of four images taken at 3.6 (blue), 4.5 (green), 5.8 (orange), and 8.0 (red) microns. The contribution from starlight (measured at 3.6 microns) has been subtracted from the 5.8 and 8-micron images to enhance the visibility of the dust features. The image below shows how it looks under visible light only.
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