| Description | M104 is numerically the first object now accepted as a Messier object which was not included in Messier's final-published catalog. However, Charles Messier added it by hand to his personal copy on May 11, 1781, and described it as a "very faint nebula". Méchain, in a letter to Bernoulli, May 6, 1783, claimed discovery on May 11, 1781. <--> What can you say? This is a bizarre target to observe.... it is a nearly featureless galaxy of uncertain classification, viewed side-on, distinguished by a pronounced central bulge (the sombrero's crown) and by a narrow, highly-defined dust band around the periphery of the disc. Older sources classify it as a spiral galaxy. More recent observations by the Spitzer and Hubble space telescopes have found the bulge larger than originally indicated, and now classify it as a giant elliptical galaxy. |
