The striking spiral galaxy
M104 is famous for its nearly
edge-on profile featuring a broad ring of obscuring dust. Seen in silhouette against a bright bulge of stars, the swath of
cosmic dust lanes lends a hat-like appearance to the galaxy in optical images suggesting the more popular moniker,
The Sombrero Galaxy. Here, Hubble Space Telescope
archival image data has been reprocessed to create this alternative look at the
well-known galaxy. The newly developed
processing improves the visibility of details otherwise lost in overwhelming glare, in this case allowing features of the galaxy's dust lanes to be followed well into the bright central region. About 50,000 light-years across and 28 million light-years away, M104 is one of the largest galaxies at the southern edge of the
Virgo Galaxy Cluster.