Sombrero Galaxy

== Overview==
The Sombrero galaxy (also categorized as M 104, NGC 4594, MCG -2-32-20, or UGCA 293) is an S0 type galaxy located in the Virgo and Corvus constellation boundaries. Because of its resemblance to the Mexican sombrero hat, the Sombrero Galaxy was given that name. The distance between the Sombrero galaxy and Earth is 31.15 megalight-years away. The galaxy is estimated to have a diameter of approximately 77.95 kilolight years across, which is approximately 38.2% smaller than the Milky Way Galaxy.
The Sombrero galaxy's distinctive feature is a bright large, white oblate spheriod nucleus that is ringed by the dense dust lanes that make up the galaxy's spiral structure. The galaxy is almost edge-on as seen from our vantage point on Earth. The galaxy's main star-making process takes place in the dominant, dense dust lane in the galaxy's disc.
The galaxy is situated within the Virgo II Groups, a collection of galaxies and galaxy clusters that extend from the Virgo Supercluster's southern boundary, but it is not apparent if it belongs to an established galaxy group. An ultra-compact dwarf galaxy dubbed SUCD1 was identified on March 2009 with an absolute brightness of 12.3, an effective radius of only 47.9 ly (3.03 million astronomical units), and a mass of 3.3×107 Solar masses. is also present in M104. This galaxy is associated with the Sombrero galaxy.https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2009MNRAS.394L..97H/abstract
==Discovery==
On May 11, 1781, the French astronomer Pierre Méchain made the first discovery of the Sombrero Galaxy and described it in a letter to J. Bernoulli in May 1783. This and five additional objects (now referred to as M104–M109) were noted by Charles Messier in a handwritten note to his own list of items that is now known as the Messier Catalogue, but they weren't "officially" added until 1921. In addition to discovering the object separately in 1784, William Herschel also reported the presence of a "dark stratum"—now known as a dust lane—in the galaxy's disc.
==Unusual brightness==
Despite its relatively small size, the Sombrero Galaxy is a peculiar bright galaxy. It is so bright it can be seen with a basic home telescope. This is because of it large nucleus which contains an above-average number of globular clusters, and probably a high concentration of stars. The iron-to-hydrogen ratios of the majority of halo stars are virtually as high as those of the sun. In reality, there are hardly any iron-poor stars in that nucleus. This shows that one or more large galaxies provided the Sombrero Galaxy with the majority of its star halo. No spiral galaxy with such an iron-rich star nucleus has ever been observed. And it could account for the Sombrero Galaxy's apparent brightness. It most likely developed many billion years ago when two or more massive galaxies collided.https://arxiv.org/abs/2001.01670
Category:Real objects
Category:Objects
Category:Galaxies
==Gallery==
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