Sombrero Galaxy

Named the Sombrero Galaxy for its hat-like resemblance, the galaxy M104 features a prominent dust lane and a bright halo of stars and globular clusters. Something truly energetic is going on in the Sombrero's center, as it not only appears bright in visible light, but glows prodigiously in X-ray light as well. This X-ray emission coupled with unusually high central stellar speeds may indicate a giant black hole the mass of a billion stellar bodies lies at the Sombrero's center.

The disk of the galaxy measures 50 000 light years across.