Messier 104, the Sombrero Galaxy, is a type Sa spiral galaxy seen nearly edge-on with a distinctive dust lane that bisects the galaxy.

The Sombrero is located in Virgo, just next to the boundary line with the constellation of Corvus.

Shining at magnitude 8.3 visually, it has an apparent size of 8.6 x 4.2 arcminutes, which corresponds to 50,000 light-years in diameter at a distance of 30 million light-years.

M104 contains a supermassive black hole at its center, with a mass of 1 billion Suns. It is also surrounded by a halo of 1,000 to 2,000 globular clusters, more than most other galaxies.

The Sombrero was discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1767. In 1912, V.M. Slipher at Lowell Observatory discovered that M104 was the first galaxy with a large redshift of more than 1,000 kilometers per second. This provided firm evidence for the expansion of the universe and the Big Bang Theory.

North is to the lower left in the above image.

M104 Catalogs: M104, NGC 4594 Common Name: Sombrero Galaxy Object Type: SA(s)a edge-on Galaxy Magnitude: 8.3v Size: 8.6' x 4.2' Constellation: Virgo Image Field Centered At: RA: 12h 39m 59s Dec: -11° 37' 47"