Sombrero Galaxy: A Great Observatories View (Forwarded)

Megan Watzke
Chandra X-ray Center, Cambridge, Mass.
(Phone: 617/496-7998)

For Release: April 30, 2007

Sombrero Galaxy: A Great Observatories View
[http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2007/sombrero/]

The Sombrero, also known as M104, is one of the largest galaxies in the
nearby Virgo cluster, about 28 million light years from Earth. This Great
Observatories view of the famous Sombrero galaxy was made using NASA's
Chandra X-ray Observatory, Hubble Space Telescope and Spitzer Space
Telescope. The main figure shows the combined image from the three
telescopes, while the three inset images show the separate observatory
views.

The Chandra X-ray image (in blue) shows hot gas in the galaxy and point
sources that are a mixture of objects within the Sombrero as well as
quasars in the background. The Chandra observations show that diffuse
X-ray emission extends over 60,000 light years from the center of the
Sombrero. (The galaxy itself spans 50,000 light years across.) Scientists
think this extended X-ray glow may be the result of a wind from the
galaxy, primarily being driven by supernovas that have exploded within its
bulge and disk. The Hubble optical image (green) shows a bulge of
starlight partially blocked by a rim of dust, as this spiral galaxy is
being observed edge on. That same rim of dust appears bright in Spitzer's
infrared image, which also reveals that Sombrero's central bulge of stars.