Astronomy Picture of the Day——M104：草帽星系
Discover the cosmos! Each day a differentimage or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a briefexplanation written by a professional astronomer.
M104: The Sombrero Galaxy
Image Data: NASA, ESA, Hubble LegacyArchive;
Processing & Copyright: Rogelio BernalAndreo (DeepSkyColors.com)
Explanation: The striking spiral galaxyM104 is famous for its nearly edge-on profile featuring a broad ring ofobscuring dust lanes. Seen in silhouette against an extensive central bulge ofstars, the swath of cosmic dust lends a broad brimmed hat-like appearance tothe galaxy suggesting a more popular moniker, The Sombrero Galaxy. Hubble SpaceTelescope data have been used to create this sharp view of the well-knowngalaxy. The processing results in a natural color appearance and preservesdetails often lost in overwhelming glare of M104's bright central bulge whenviewed with smaller ground-based telescopes. Also known as NGC 4594, theSombrero galaxy can be seen across the spectrum and is host to a centralsupermassive black hole. About 50,000 light-years across and 28 millionlight-years away, M104 is one of the largest galaxies at the southern edge ofthe Virgo Galaxy Cluster.
M104：草帽星系
旋涡星系M104以接近侧向轮廓和广阔的环状尘埃带而闻名。在大量恒星形成的中央凸起衬托下，这条宇宙尘埃带使得M104看起来像一顶宽边草帽，因而被赋予草帽星系的昵称。哈勃太空望远镜的数据被用来制作了这幅著名的图像。这幅图像不仅呈现了星系自然的颜色外观，同时还保存了通常被M104中央凸起发出的耀眼光芒所掩盖的细致结构，这也是地面望远镜观观测不到的。草帽星系又被称为NGC 4594，它在各个波段均可见，中央拥有一个超大质量黑洞。M104的直径约为5万光年，距离我们约2800万光年，是室女座星系团南缘最大的星系之一。
近期文章：
Astronomy Picture of the Day——盖亚构建的M15