Hubble Space Telescope Captures Photo Of A Galaxy That Looks Dusty Like a Mexican Hat

The Little Sombrero galaxy is long and thin, resembling a Mexican hat.

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA — Space Telescope Hubble capturing galaxy pictures little hat this week. The galaxy is so named because of its long, thin shape with a bulge in the center, reminiscent of the design of a traditional Mexican hat.

Reported from Digital Trends, Monday (16/5/2022), the Little Sombrero galaxy, commonly known as NGC 7814 or Caldwell 43, is a small galaxy 40 million light years away and 80,000 light years wide. Our Milky Way galaxy is much larger, with a diameter of about 106,000 light years.

The Little Sombrero has another distinguishing feature, namely that it is very dusty. The disk collects dust, while the core bulge is brighter and full of stars that illuminate the gas around it.

The Little Sombrero is one of a pair of galaxies, with Sombrero galaxy be an older sibling. The Sombrero Galaxy is about the same size as the Small Sombrero galaxy, but appears to be larger in the sky because it is closer to us.

The Sombrero Galaxy, also known as Messier 104, is 28 million light years away and has a shape similar to the Milky Way. This galaxy has a central bulge and a wide disk visible at the edges.

Hubble also photographed the Sombrero galaxy in a famous image released in 2003. Because it can be seen directly from Earth, these galaxies have a similar shape.

This image was chosen to commemorate Hubble’s fifth anniversary for its extraordinary level of detail, capturing the spectacular galaxy in one of the largest mosaics ever constructed from Hubble data at the time.

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