History of Hubble Space Telescope (HST)

A CLOSER LOOK

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. As seen from Earth, the galaxy is tilted nearly edge-on. We view it from just six degrees north of its equatorial plane. This rich system of globular clusters is estimated to be nearly 2,000 in number which is 10 times as many as in our Milky Way galaxy. Similar to the clusters in the Milky Way, the ages range

Explore NASA's original image record for credits and available downloads.