M104 Galaxy in Infrared Light

Infrared-light composite filtered image of M104 Galaxy taken by Spitzer Space Telescope in june 2004. Galaxy M104 (”Sombrero galaxy”) is located in the Virgo cluster, at a distance of about 30 million light-years. Its giant ring of dust spans over 50000 light years. It is believed that a supermassive black hole of a billion solar masses is located at its center.

Click image to zoom¹

1. © NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Kennicutt (University of Arizona), and the SINGS Team [↩]