10/8/2003: Picturesque galaxy

[Undertoad]

This is today's Astronomy Pic of the Day. It's the Sombrero Galaxy in a new Hubble image. Or you could refer to it by its original name, "M104" or "Messier Object 104", named for the dude who first noticed it and catalogued it.

It's notable because it's considered the most picturesque of the galaxies. This is important, because you really don't want to live in one of the run-down galaxies - so gauche. Some of the galaxies out there are literally breaking apart! Does nobody care about their surroundings?

The interesting part of this beast is the "diffuse glow of the extended central bulge". My own extended central bulge has no such glow, and so I am envious.

It turns out that the diffuse glow is actually "globular clusters", and a few minutes of clicking around suggests that this means that white glow is actually millions of little stars.

And then there's the rim of foam around the edge of it, framing it nicely and considerately. That turns out to be interstellar dust grains of some sort.

So, to sum up, wrap your mind around this: the glow of white is millions of stars - so large that we can't fathom it. The brown part is made of grains of dust so small that we couldn't see an individual one with the human eye.

FAR OUT MAN.