Public domain
History of Hubble Space Telescope (HST)
From the collection of NASA Image and Video Library. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
The razor sharp eye of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) easily resolves the Sombrero galaxy, Messier 104 (M104). 50,000 light-years across, the galaxy is located 28 million light-years from Earth at the southern edge of the rich Virgo cluster of galaxies. Equivalent to 800 billion suns, Sombrero is one of the most massive objects in that group. The hallmark of Sombrero is a brilliant white, bulbous core encircled by the thick dust lanes comprising the spiral structure of the galaxy.
NASA Image and Video Library’s own descriptionCredit lineHistory of Hubble Space Telescope (HST). NASA/MSFC, 2003-06-09. Public domain. ID: 0700064.
