M104: The Daily Galaxy from NASA's Great Fleet of Observatories

The awesome Sombrero Galaxy M104 discovered in May 1781 by Pierre Méchain is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Virgo.

In the 1990s, a research team, using data from the Hubble Space Telescope, discovered that a supermassive black hole with a mass 1 billion times the mass of the Sun is present at the center of the galaxy's large bulge. This is among the most massive black holes measured in any nearby galaxies.

Scientists have long suspected that massive balck holes existed at the centers of most galaxies, beginning with Sir Martin Rees in 1974. But the mystery has deepened. For a brilliant essay on that mystery click here.

Posted by Jason McManus.

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