Universe ID: 30995

Sombrero Galaxy in Multiple Wavelengths

Released on October 29, 2018

The Sombrero Galaxy has a distinctive ring of dust that circles a smooth bulge of stars. The galaxy's dust and inner flat disk are very clear in the infrared. The Sombrero Galaxy may be a spiral galaxy like the Milky Way, but because of its extremely edge-on orientation, we see it in the flat pancake aspect. Our Milky Way would also have this appearance if viewed from the side angle.

Optical: The dust ring is partially hidden in the galaxy's visible-light glow.
Infrared: The galaxy's dust and inner flat disk are clear when viewing infrared.

Credits

Greg Bacon (STScI): Visualizer
Robert Kennicutt (University of Arizona): Image Processing
Leann Johnson (GST): Lead Technical Support

Please give credit for this item to:
Video: NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI)
Image Credits:

Optical: NASA/Hubble Space Telescope/Hubble Heritage Team (STScI)
Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Kennicutt (University of Arizona) and the SINGS Team.

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/30995

Missions:
Spitzer Space Telescope
Hubble

Data Used:
Hubble Space Telescope
Spitzer Space Telescope
Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details nor the data sets themselves on our site.

Keywords:
SVS >> Dust
SVS >> Galaxy
SVS >> HDTV
SVS >> Infrared
SVS >> Hyperwall
SVS >> Star
NASA Science >> Universe