Explanation:
The striking spiral galaxy
M104 is famous
for its nearly edge-on
profile featuring a broad ring of obscuring dust.
Seen in silhouette against a bright bulge of stars, the swath of
cosmic dust lanes lends a hat-like
appearance to the galaxy in optical images suggesting
the more popular moniker,
The Sombrero
Galaxy.
Here, Hubble Space Telescope
archival image data
has been reprocessed to create this alternative look at the
well-known galaxy.
The newly developed
processing
improves the visibility
of details otherwise lost in overwhelming glare, in this case
allowing features of the galaxy's dust lanes to be followed
well into the bright central region.
About 50,000 light-years across and 28 million light-years away,
M104 is one of the largest galaxies at the southern edge of
the Virgo Galaxy Cluster.
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