APOD: 2026 October 5 – M104: The Sombrero Galaxy’s Tidal Streams
NASA ·
APOD Science APOD APOD: 2026 October 5 – M104:… Today’s APOD Archive Submissions Index Search Calendar RSS Education About Discuss APOD Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. M104: The […]
APOD
Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
Explanation: A deep image of the Sombrero galaxy reveals surprises. M104 is named the Sombrero galaxy because, on shorter exposures , it looks like a hat . A key defining feature of this huge galaxy is a dark brim of dust that circles the disk galaxy’s center. A much longer exposure, however, brings up a hairy past where a bright, hazy halo is revealed that extends well past the central disk and contains many unresolved stars. Surprisingly , in this stellar haze, structures can be seen that include a diagonal ring . These structures and tidal streams provide fresh evidence that M104 had a violent past and is surely the result of collisions and mergers of smaller galaxies. Light takes about 30 million years to reach us from the Sombrero galaxy , which fully spans about 150 thousand light years across. The featured image was taken over seven days in mid-2026 from Namibia .
Your Sky Surprise: What picture did APOD feature on your birthday? (post 1995) Tomorrow’s picture: a smile
Yesterday’s Image APOD: 2026 October 4 – Supernumerary Rainbows over New Jersey