Infrared Universe: Sombrero Galaxy

The Sombrero Galaxy has a distinctive ring of dust that circles a smooth bulge of stars. The galaxy's dust and inner flat disk are very clear in the infrared. The Sombrero Galaxy may be a spiral galaxy like the Milky Way, but because of its extremely edge-on orientation, we see it in the flat pancake aspect. Our Milky Way would also have this appearance if viewed from the side angle.

Optical: The dust ring is partially hidden in the galaxy's visible-light glow.
Credit: NASA/Hubble Space Telescope/Hubble Heritage Team (STScI)

Infrared: The galaxy's dust and inner flat disk are clear when viewing infrared.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Kennicutt (University of Arizona) and the SINGS Team

About the Infrared Universe Collection

The human eye can only see visible light, but objects give off a variety of wavelengths of light. To see an object as it truly exists, we would ideally look at its appearance through the full range of the electromagnetic spectrum. Telescopes show us objects as they appear emitting different energies of light, with each wavelength conveying unique information about the object. The Webb Space Telescope will study infrared light from celestial objects with much greater clarity and sensitivity than ever before. Explore the Infrared Universe. Adapted from Cool Cosmos by IPAC, with additional contributions from Bruno Merin and Miguel Merin (Pludo).