Sombrero Galaxy
What is Sombrero Galaxy?
Galaxies· Distance ~31 million ly. Famous for looking like a wide-brimmed Mexican hat. Seen nearly edge-on, a thick dust lane rims the disc while a large, bright bulge rises above it. A billion-solar-mass black hole sits at the centre, and nearly 2,000 globular clusters swarm around it.
📍 Visible from where you are right now — computed in your browser
bearing · altitude · rise time · best time tonight
Where Sombrero Galaxy is in your sky right now: https://nowsky.org/solar/sky?sel=sombrero galaxy — location and time set automatically, no login.
Its place in the sky
A galaxy, in the direction of Corvus, spanning about 9 arcminutes of sky — 0.3 times the width of the full Moon.
Distance and scale
| Distance | ~31 million ly |
|---|---|
| Diameter | ~50,000 ly |
| Central black hole | ~1 billion Suns |
| Constellation | Virgo |
Figures are representative approximations. Source: compiled from NASA and IAU public data.
Discovery and name
In 1912 Slipher measured its large redshift — the first hint of an expanding universe.
Frequently asked
- How far is Sombrero Galaxy from Earth?
- ~31 million ly.
- How big is Sombrero Galaxy?
- ~50,000 ly.
- Where in the sky is Sombrero Galaxy?
- In the direction of Corvus.
- Where is Sombrero Galaxy in the sky right now?
- Open the sky view for your location and time and it shows the position in the sky right now.
Spiral or elliptical? The Sombrero's identity
The Sombrero was long classed as a spiral galaxy with a large disk. But Spitzer's infrared observations in 2012 revealed an enormous elliptical halo beyond the bright disk — the shape of a spiral disk embedded in the body of an elliptical. When Hubble counted the halo's stars individually in 2020 it found many rich in metals, implying the halo grew not by swallowing small galaxies but through a merger with a large one.
The Sombrero, then, sits on the boundary between the two galaxy types, a rare case of a disk surviving a major merger. Its central black hole, a billion solar masses, is 250 times our galaxy's, and a black hole unusually heavy for the galaxy's mass is also read as a mark of merging. In Webb's 2024 infrared image the famous dust lane turned out to be not a smooth band but a clumpy ring.
The galaxy in depth
The Sombrero Galaxy, M104, lies about 31 million light-years away near the border of Virgo and Corvus. Some 50,000 light-years across, it is nearly as massive as the Milky Way, and because we see its disc tilted only about six degrees from edge-on, the dust lane along the rim stands out as a dark hoop. That lane beneath an unusually large, bright bulge suggests a broad-brimmed hat — hence the name.
Pierre Méchain found it in 1781 and it joined the Messier list much later. In 1912 Vesto Slipher measured a recession velocity of over 1,000 km/s from its spectrum, one of the first clues to the expanding universe. Its core harbours a supermassive black hole of around a billion solar masses, and nearly 2,000 globular clusters swarm around it — more than ten times the Milky Way's count. Infrared views reveal a bulge far larger than the disc, so it is now seen as a hybrid with traits of both elliptical and spiral galaxies.
On spring nights look west of Spica, above Corvus. Select the Sombrero in the Sky view to mark its direction; even a small telescope shows an elongated glow, and mid-sized instruments reveal the dust lane, making it a perennial favourite.
Related
Figures are representative approximations. Simulated positions use J2000 mean elements.