By Dean Murray via SWNS
Space scientists have captured a startling new image of the so-called Sombrero galaxy.
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope snapped a mid-infrared view of Messier 104 (M104), also named for its resemblance to a broad-brimmed Mexican hat.
In the image, the signature, glowing core of the galaxy seen in visible-light images does not shine, and instead a smooth inner disk is revealed.
The sharp resolution of Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) also brings into focus details of the galaxy’s outer ring, providing insights into how the dust, an essential building block for astronomical objects in the universe, is distributed.
The galaxy’s outer ring, which appeared smooth like a blanket in imaging from NASA’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope, shows intricate clumps in the infrared for the first time.
A 2010 visible light image of M104 by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the large and extended glow of the central bulge of stars.
ESA said: “Both the Webb and Hubble images resolve the clumpy nature of the dust that makes up the Sombrero galaxy’s outer ring.”
The Sombrero galaxy is around 30 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo.
